DCD34362-CD

KIN

After forging a close musical bond in contemporary repertoire, Lotte Betts-Dean and Joseph Havlat turn to a tradition that is anything but fixed. KIN explores folksong as a living, evolving art: melodies and stories passed between generations, reshaped by memory, place and imagination. Alongside now canonical arrangements by Britten, Bartók and Grainger and rarities by E.J. Moeran and Doreen Senior, new commissions from Josephine Stephenson, Isabella Gellis and Louise Drewett bring fresh perspectives to this shared inheritance. Rooted in the duo’s own sense of cultural identity – at once Australian, European and diasporic – this is a programme that moves fluidly across borders and eras, held together by an instinctive, finely balanced partnership.

 

'There is so much to enjoy here. Above all, Betts-Dean draws out the story in every song, just as folk music should. Picture a group of friends gathered round while one of them spins a tale, and you have the spirit of this disc. It is all achieved through a keen ear for tempo and a finely judged use of dynamics, never through over-egging.

Two musicians best known for the cutting edge have gone back to the oldest songs of all, and have made them sound newly minted.'

 

Release Date: 25 September 2026
Recorded on 21-22 January 2025 at St Cuthbert's Parish Church, Edinburgh
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter

24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mixing & mastering: Paul Baxter
Cover photography: Isabella Gellis
Design: Drew Padrutt

Booklet editor: John Fallas
Session photography: Will Coates-Gibson/ Foxbrush

Watch


Lotte Betts-Dean and Joseph Havlat perform The British Waterside by Percy Grainger.

Album Booklet

You may also like ...

softLOUD CD Delphian Records

everything you've ever lived

Benjamin Britten: Canticles

Stuart MacRae: Earth, thy cold is keen

The Past & I: 100 Years of Thomas Hardy

Charlotte Saluste Bridoux | Joseph Havlat: Schubert

Piazzolla: María de Buenos Aires CD Delphian Records

Building Castles: Live Music Now Scotland celebrates 40 years

Subscribe