SHADOWLANDS

The fruitful collaboration of French-born saxophonist-clarinetist Robin Fincker and British pianist Kit Downes goes back decades. Their life paths have taken them from London to two different countries in Europe, and they met again three years ago when they teamed up with Irish singer Lauren Kinsella to set traditional songs and contemporary poetry to music. 

After their first album Ombres, released on BMC Records in March 2024, they are now presenting their newest project Many Moons due for release early 2026.

With Many Moons, Shadowlands continues its journey between old and new music, shedding light on the unheard corners of past songs whilst unfolding its own version of contemporary folk music. 

For this new repertoire, the trio has refined its language and has developed a free yet dazzlingly clear way of floating between songs. In this space, traditional Sean Os songs, poems by Emily Dickinson and Yeats and a Sainte by Maurice Ravel cohabit with original compositions. 

Through the flicking light, the voice of Lauren Kinsella hovers like a planet around which the saxophone and keyboards gravitate and circle, thus creating music of a timeless revolution.

PRESS QUOTES

"The performers gave these songs a new life, between adaptation and quest for an original essence. Robin Fincker, explains interpreting the shadows of these songs. These are the shadows to which Lauren Kinsella lends her voice, turning over the tunes and words as if to examine their seams, sometimes sliding towards original music and texts or even onomatopoeia, on the borders of contemporary music; Robin Fincker, between tenor saxophone and clarinet, Kit Downes constantly switching from Hammond organ to piano and vice versa, illuminating texts and melodies with abstract flames that they light as they go. We would have liked to invite Luciano Berio, composer of the famous Folk Songs, to discover these “shadows”." Franck Bergerot Jazz Magazine

"Lauren Kinsella sings folksongs from several ages, and has a powerful yet subtle way of shaping them, providing a framework around which the others can explore freely and go off on voyages of discovery. Kit Downes will always find the astonishing tone colours which lie dormant in an organ, either in a church or in this case a Hammond, and Robin Fincker a is subtle, inventive, thoughtful, classy player. There is already an album due out next spring on the Hungarian BMC label. I managed to blag a copy: it is a delight." Sebastian Scotney London Jazz News