Shadowlands: ‘Two Minds’

The confident sounds of Shadowlands (Robin Fincker, Lauren Kinsella and Kit Downes) returns with their special jazz-folk hybrid sound on ‘Two Minds’.

Throughout this second album, Shadowlands take songs that sound as old as time and make them new. Their 2024 debut was Ombres, and this follow-up develops their sound, taking three exceptional musicians and bringing them together in the traditional, the brand new and a collaborative space for improvisation.

My Life Had Stood takes us from an ethereal opening with Downes’s Hammond and Fincker’s clarinet establishing the setting for Kinsella’s voice, using Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Like many of these tunes, they have been composed by Fincker and seem to fit perfectly with the lyrics chosen or created. Poetry by Christina Rossetti are next taken into Buds and Babies, a composition by Downes. Kinsella’s voice is simply astounding in its beauty and on this track especially, every note on piano and sax fits perfectly.

When the three together compose Cornered, the result has a freedom and a brevity that will demand a second, or third listening. There is so much encased in that one tune, which barely lasts a minute.

Taking inspiration from traditional tunes, poetry, a Ravel composition - Sainte - and even the similarly brief instrumental Plumage, the trio give space to performance and improvisation that remains true to the original inspiration, lyrics or germ of an idea. There really is a confidence and an exciting fluidity to the sound-scape of Two Minds.

Shadowlands is Robin Fincker (tenor sax, clarinet), Lauren Kinsella (voice) and Kit Downes (piano, hammond organ). Their Two Minds album launch takes place this weekend at London’s Kings Place.

‘Two Minds’ by Shadowlands is out from BMC Records on 5 June 2026