Samana ★★★★ All One Breath PAPERHOUSE MUSIC. CD/DL/LP

Progressive folk duo drill deep into melancholia on sequel to 2019’s Ascension.

An unplanned, extended stay in France hastened the arrival of this Welsh duo’s second LP. Working to a much looser brief than its predecessor’s ruminations of love, loss and death, Rebecca Rose Harris and Franklin Mockett culled

All One Breath from over 60 songs whose bare-bones arrangements reflect what was at their disposal. It works to their favour on the meditative deep reflections of Melancholy Heat, swooning wanderlust of Live For The Road and subtle harmonising of The Glory Of Love (a close cousin of Velvet Underground’s Oh! Sweet Nuthin’). Just when the album seems locked into an alluring cycle of rustic guitar creak and murmured vocals – think Nico, Jarboe, Mazzy Star – the spare piano-led title track and squalling finale to Patience puncture the reverie, if not its anaesthetising reach.