Jacken Elswyth and Elspeth Anne

Opening the 2026/27 Future Folk series are two boundary-pushing artists at the edges of modern folk. Jacken Elswyth and Elspeth Anne weave banjo, voice, drone and distortion into something strange and compelling. Drawing on tradition but never settling for it, their music drifts between the ancient and the experimental — stark, atmospheric, and full of feeling.

Jacken Elswyth is a London-based folk musician, banjo player, and instrument builder. In her music making, she is focused on exploring traditional tunes, developing extrapolations on folk styles and techniques, and investigating drone, ambience, and improvisation within and beyond folk music. She organises the Betwixt & Between tape series as one avenue of these investigations. She plays and records solo and in collaboration – with Shovel Dance Collective, Sullow, and others. She also builds and repairs banjos and other instruments, with a focus on folk craft and vernacular styles. This practice and these instruments inform and facilitate her music making.

Elspeth Anne is a multi-instrumentalist performer reimagining the traditional folk music of the British Isles, drawing in alt-country and punk influences to create a mesmeric, dark sound of drones and guitar, with the voice as the central focus. Based on the Welsh-English border, her practice is informed by the wilder landscape and the liminal undercurrent of the area.

Elspeth’s work has been championed recently by artist and folk researcher Ben Edge and Lankums’ Ian Lynch on his podcast Fire Draw Near. Her third album, Mercy Me, has received highly favourable reviews from the Guardian, KLOF mag and TradFolk, with KLOF mag describing it as ‘an album full of ideas, but more importantly, full of feeling, a raw, moving triumph.’

Elspeth has supported artists such as One Leg One Eye, Stick in the Wheel and Richard Dawson.

This event will last for approximately 90 minutes with an interval.