French saxophonist Robin Fincker and British pianist Kit Downes first collaborated more than two decades ago before their paths diverged across different corners of Europe. Reuniting in 2023 alongside Irish singer Lauren Kinsella, the trio found a new shared language through the meeting of traditional songs, contemporary poetry and improvisation.

Where Ombres introduced Shadowlands’ exploration of old and new — shedding light on the unheard corners of the past — Two Minds feels like a refinement of that vision. The trio’s shared language has evolved into a free yet dazzlingly clear way of moving between traditional Irish sean-nós songs, contemporary improvisation and original composition. Within that space, a poem by Emily Dickinson, a setting of Maurice Ravel’s Sainte and original material coexist naturally alongside centuries-old folk traditions. Rather than treating traditional songs as fixed historical material, Shadowlands allows them to evolve through improvisation, atmosphere and collective interplay.

Recorded at BMC’s home studio in Budapest, the album unfolds in slow-moving textures where voice, clarinet, organ and piano blur together into something both ancient and startlingly contemporary. 

At the centre of it all is Lauren Kinsella’s voice — powerful yet subtle — around which the trio’s shifting textures circle and reform. Robin Fincker’s saxophone and clarinet play with the furrows of light traced by the voice or, on the contrary, highlighting the song’s shadows. Kit Downes moves between piano and Hammond organ, drawing out astonishing tone colours which give the music its drifting, atmospheric character. Sometimes magically beautiful and sometimes strikingly raw, Two Minds treats tradition not as preservation, but as a living, evolving musical language.

Of course, all three musicians are already well established on the European jazz scene: Robin Fincker with a wide-ranging discography stretching from London’s improvised music scene of the early 2000s to collaborations with artists such as Vincent Courtois and Daniel Erdmann, Kit Downes with his ECM solo recordings alongside groups including ENEMY and Deadeye and Lauren Kinsella whose work spans folk, jazz and experimental music, including the duo Snowpoet.

Together, Shadowlands transcends those individual musical worlds, creating a language that feels both timeless and completely new.