Held By Trees - Hinterland (2025) [Hi-Res]

“Hinterland” is the second LP by Held By Trees, taking in elements of jazz, post-rock, and ambient music and will be released on CD/Vinyl (and digital download only on Bandcamp) on Friday 4th April, 2025 on Tweed Jacket Music Ltd and Lasgo Records Distribution. The follow-up to 2022’s critically acclaimed debut, ‘Solace’, this new eight-piece album is a sonic journey through ambiguous spaces, within and without.

Once again, Held By Trees – helmed by composer/producer David Joseph - brings together living DNA from its chief influence, the latter work of Mark Hollis with Talk Talk, and as a solo artist. This includes this time his son Charlie Hollis who plays piano on four of the tracks. Returning Talk Talk/Hollis veterans are Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Laurence Pendrous on piano, Andy Panayi on flute, clarinet and saxophone (who are each member of the live HBT band), plus Martin Ditcham on drums/percussion and Simon Edwards on double bass.

Other notable contributors to the album include: Rob Coombes (Supergrass) on Hammond Organ, Stephen Gilchrist (Stephen Evens, Graham Coxon) on drums, Simone Marie Butler (Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain) on synths and sound effects, Matt Simms (Wire, It Hugs Back) on guitar, Norman Westberg (Swans) on guitar, Robert Poss (Band of Susans, Phil Niblock) on guitar, Simon Scott (Slowdive) with field recordings, Mark Simnett (Bark Psychosis) on drums and percussion, Jen Macro (My Bloody Valentine, Hurtling, Graham Coxon) on guitar, Chris Pedley (The Baker Brothers) on bass. Also returning from the cast of the first album is recording artist Peter Moon, who is responsible for many of the Hinterland's delicate and indefinable textures, made using multiple layers of analogue equipment in his studio in Cornwall.

David Joseph said, “‘Hinterland’ is a meandering celebration of the vague, the between places, the forgotten, nameless margins – not just in the landscape around us physically, but also internally – somewhere in the middle of faith and doubt, joy and melancholy, departure and arrival.”

“The thrill of Held By Trees is bringing such a variety of musicians together and sculpting something surprising and unique from the ideas they submit. This album is an odyssey of guitar, with some of the most innovative guitarists of the last 50 years of alternative, left-field music taking part. ‘Hinterland’ is full of soundscapes using guitars like paintbrushes, painting a variety of rich, delicate, floating and abrasive textures that evoke the liminal spaces around us and within us.”

In a departure from previous releases, the artwork this time is supplied by Brighton-based abstract mixed-media artist, Gareth Hayward. David said, “Gareth’s artwork is the perfect visual pairing for the music. It asks us what we see within it, without dictating what or where it is. There is plenty of intentional ambiguity, which is central to the album’s musical theme. I adore Gareth’s use of negative-space and his visceral approach to capturing landscapes full of mood and mystery.”

Please note that the album is intended to heard as a cohesive body of work, which is why tracks cannot be previewed and no advance singles have been released. Thank you for understanding.