Samson & Delilah

As sparkling as morning dew and just as tender, Samson & Delilah's eponymous album is a delicate flower of a record.
The band are centred around life, as well as music, partners Sam Lench and Anna Zweck, and their intimacy shines through the songs that fill this, their debut release.
As with fellow Mancunian pairing The Winter Journey, their partnership has pushed forth a collection that flits from one to the other, sharing lead vocals in delicious style, and is as a fit for a cosy living room as it is for a stage.
From the shimmering ghost of opener Crystallised Sand to the gathering, gently epic finale of Place To Be, it is an album filled with subtle moments, glistening harmonies and intriguing instrumentation.
Gems lie in the stunning, early music-esque a cappella opening of And When The Rose, Dusk's sparse music box quality and the swaying crescendo of Angels Said.
They are far from the only places that shine, as just as satisfying are the wandering whistles and hand claps of Swimming Against The Tide, Starlight In The Afternoon's gathering swell or the sub-gypsy-punk breakdown of Motherbird.
There's restrained adventure at every turn and gentle joy by the bucket load to be found, all combining to make a well-considered and finely delivered debut. - BBC Online

The debut release from Sam Lench and Anna Zweck as Samson & Delilah is very ambitious for what is essentially a folk record. The duo diversify their piano and guitar tunes by playing an impressive 18 instruments between them (including accordion, recorder, zither, and mandolin) and then calling on further contributors to enrich their emotional and at times lively foray. The final product is surprisingly cohesive and proves the pair have a sense of how to cultivate their delicate melodies without seeming gimmicky.

The album relates the ups and downs of a long distance relationship and the bittersweet nature of having someone without really having them. Zweck leans more towards sombre yet ethereal piano numbers, and her soprano has an inherent, beautiful sadness to it, which is nicely balanced by Lench’s more traditional indie rock vocals and up beat guitar frolics. It is a lovely complement that in the current of longing running through the album there is that twinge of whimsy that endears the songs to the listener. Despite the pangs of separation and the growing pains of love, there is an overall warmth that makes Samson & Delilah a wholly charming debut. But next time could we please get a little more Delilah? - Bearded Magazine

Manchester's always been known for a rich seem of acts that draw influence from traditional folk leanings, and sit contentedly side by side with some of the city's more luddite stereotypes. However, for a while it looked like the likes of Nomad Jones, Air Cav and Liam Frost were starting to trawl an increasingly lonely furrow; names that had been in circulation since 2004 with nothing coming through to compete with them. Thank goodness, then, that 2009 has seen a fresh wave of new artists cropping up in the Cups and Bay Horses of the north west. The likes of Eleanor Lou and Butler-Williams have proved, at this year's In The City, that the Mancunian penchant for applying a touch of Northern grit to long-standing acoustic roots is still very much alive and well.

Samson & Delilah are a curio though: a five-piece borne from a large musical collective known as The Waverton Collective, they understandably emit a sense of tight kinsmanship; and yet the wide scope of their music makes them difficult to place amongst their regional contemporaries. A debut album this may be, but the sheer range of outward looking influences give the impression of a group far more advanced than their fledgling status suggests. Take 'Motherhood' for instance; a German oompah stomp that additionally conveys simultaneous impressions of Parisian cobbled streets and East European country music. It's a mark of the apparent bond between the group that they can make such varying root-based strands work together.

It's the prominent closeness of the band that make this LP a success. Songs are written and sang by real-life partners Sam Lench and Anna Zweck, but although the eleven tracks here focus strongly on building layers up around their intertwining, alternating vocals, there's never the sense of there being a divide between couple and band. 'And When The Rose' sees Zweck's fragile lone vocal eventually find support from the rest of the group, whilst 'Dreams Of Yesterday' sees it lifted up on a crashing wave of pianos, accordions and hand claps. It's true front-facing effort from all concerned that aims to reach for the sort rattling crescendos so perfected by Sufjan Stevens. What stops them from doing so is the rather timid nature of production. The hazy flutter of the Lench-fronted 'Swimming Against The Tide' pushes for a headphone jangling quiet/loud juxtaposition that is sadly lost amongst the quiet nature of the album's mastering. The reasoning is understandable; the intimate nature of much of Samson & Delilah suggests the need for such dry production; but you can’t help the feeling that some songs would truly fly with even a smidgeon more expanse. As it is, things occasionally drift along when a tumble into a trough or soaring peak would be much welcomed. The otherwise beautifully bleak instrumental 'Dawn' would rip rather than tug at the heartstrings if bathed in a murky hue.

Let's not detract too much from an alluring debut offering, however. Samson & Delilah are a real interest; a band who can thread a range of European roots music together and make it sound unmistakeably theirs. If dynamically they don't always reach light/dark opposites, then emotionally they do; many of the songs here deal in melancholy, of the pains of long distance love. The frequent sections of isolated vocals feel almost representative of the enveloping loneliness felt when forced away from a partner. And yet on 'Angels Said' Lench optimistically sings that "the darkness makes us stronger"; an uplifting sentiment to a wonderfully well-woven record. - God Is In The TV

Duo Sam Lench and Anna Zweck come from contrasting yet highly complimentary fields: Lench is of indie rock descendancy while Zweck is a classically trained musician. Between them they've pulled off a rather lovely album of baroque folk and classic traditional songwriting. Despite an abundance of arrestingly elaborate multi-instrumental arrangements it's actually in quieter moments like the Anne Briggs-like acappella intro to 'And When The Rose' that most impress. The album is packed with woodwind, mandolins and various other peripheral instruments that align with more conventional folk building blocks to fill in a beautiful tapestry that's redolent of classic '70s folk-rock fusion. - Boomkat

As the noughties seem to be evaporating somewhat prematurely, so does the enthusiasm for the folk-rock revival that characterised the dawn of the decade. Whilst wormholes back to late-‘60s/early-‘70s folk-centric revivalism – opened on respective sides of the Atlantic by Devendra Banhart and James Yorkston – may never close fully, the opportunities to pull out some fresh inspiration for such halcyon days seems to be narrowing. Even the bastion of nouveau-folk fanaticism, The Green Man Festival, has loosened its remit to enrol those not wholly fixated on Pentangle, Unhalfbricking/Liege & Leif-era Fairport Convention, The Wicker Man soundtrack and all things pastorally nostalgic. Hence, it’s harder for those still in thrall to such influences to sound particularly radical, especially to these saturated-lobes. So, when this first LP offering from the Manchester-based Samson & Delilah (AKA Sam Lench and Anna Zweck) arrived in a sleeve – gorgeous as it maybe – that suggested yet another acid-folk flashback, expectations weren’t especially high. Thankfully though, with repeated patience-rewarding spins these weary ears were gently soothed into submission.
Part of the twosome’s charm lies in a beguiling subtly which at the outset can be misheard as reticent shyness. Few albums released in a time where typical MP3-focussed mastering has reached ridiculous sound-bending levels require as much diligent attention-giving as this introductory Samson & Delilah long-player, to pick out all the hidden detail. In effect, Lench and Zweck have made their seemingly passive presence demand almost aggressive concentration. Once inside this auditory head-space however, then the record peels back layer-upon-layer of rich features. Airing the opulent opening “Crystallised Sand” the first time suggests merely a more Anglicised Espers, but by the second spin it feels like a crescendo-building Eastern European gypsy lament. Initially, the ensuing “Swimming Against The Tide” sounds like a run-of-the-mill manly acoustic ballad but it soon reveals itself as a carnivalesque Incredible String Band-like reverie, through florid flutes and dense percussive meshes. The pattern of second or third play perspectives repeats itself throughout the album; with the miniature-then-widescreen mandolin-drenched beauty of “And When the Rose” and the woozy-to-drunken Weimar Republic waltzing of “Motherbird” being other glimmering examples
Some of the LP’s less demonstrative pieces may offer less steadily unravelling secrets but still conceal some slow-to-absorb splashes of enchantment. Thus, the clockwork-imitating instrumental interlude of “Dusk” puts a more rustic slant on Glen Johnson’s Textile Ranch side-project wares and the equally wordless late-night piano haunting of “Dawn” recalls the more melancholic edge of Howe Gelb’s Lull, Ogle and Spun Some Piano trilogy. Elsewhere, the wintry wispiness “Dreams Of Yesterday” and the largely a capella “Starlight In Your Afternoon” also highlight that Zweck’s crystalline yet comfortingly untamed tones, have the strong potential to follow unpretentiously in the footsteps of the Anne Briggs, Sandy Denny and Vashti Bunyan lineage. Whilst Lench’s voice is less alluring, his impassioned pipes do provide an earthly counterbalance to Zweck’s ethereal vocals, to prevent proceedings floating-off into predictable patchouli-scented retro rurality.
Although romantically-bound in their own bubble, Sam Lench and Anna Zweck have fashioned an open-ended affair here that is inviting, inclusive and intimate. The fact that this dreamy debut also keeps awake a musical spirit that seemed destined for another stint of hibernation is merely a happy consequence of a collection which glows strongly and imaginatively on its own terms. - Delusions Of Adequacy

For those interested in Manchester’s much respected alternative folk scene, The Waverton Collective were something of a legend. Here, and it is with some delight to report, that a key luminary, Sam Lench, has emerged alongside his real life partner and fellow musician Anna Zweck. Lench brings forward some of the lost points of that first Mancunian unplugged movement. That was a scene illuminated by some very traditional perspectives, mingling sensitive arrangements with an attitude and outlook that reflected the city’s history and the post-bomb urban setting. As a result, their self titled album is carefully orchestrated with acoustica, strings and brass, but comes complete with an organic, natural sounding sense of performance. There are heavy, consciously depressed moments, that sit alongside perfect soundtracks for a summer’s day. I don’t think you’ll hear a more impressive intro to a song than the harmonic chants of “And When The Rose”. “Starlight In Your Afternoon” is a haunting affair, where distant drums and the drone of strings, allows Anna Zweck to layer a chorister’s tune over the musical haze of what feels like early morning mist. - Manchester Music

Sam Lench and Anna Zweck have used their own relationship as a springboard for this release creating a tale of 'where their lives intertwine'. And so subtle is some of this self titled debut it's psych-folk whispers must be working on a subliminal level. But, after a period of tuning in, the boundary-free acoustica, and cleverness of it's central story, becomes vividly apparent and as radiant as a vase of Van Gogh's sunflowers! - Spiral Earth

Also courtesy of Little Red Rabbit (LRR013) comes the eponymously titled album "Samson and Delilah" who are Sam Lench and Anna Zwenk – he with a background in indie-rock, Zweck in classical music. The album was recorded in a number of locations including the church in which the couple were married. The music, which might loosely be described as "new folk", is acoustic, organic, occasionally dreamy and invariably uplifting. It is also very even and balanced with Lench and Zwenk sharing the lead vocals and alternating writing pretty much 50/50. On the whole, Zweck’s compositions are the more ethereal and in some respects interesting (Robin Williamson to hubby’s Mike Heron?) but the ying/yang approach lends the album strength and feeling. This is a lovely and at times magical little album, which I would recommend. - Terrascope

an album of two halves

… or rather an album of two distinct styles. Samson & Delilah is the debut release from Sam Lench and Anna Zweck who together record as Samson & Delilah.

Lench’s songs are, on the whole, happy and uplifting conjuring scenes of an English countryside in early summer. Nestled between two of his instrumentals, “The Hoop Snake” is particularly joyful. Classically trained, Zweck’s work is more sombre with a sense of sadness and foreboding throughout.

For me, albums like this don’t work as they generally smack too much of an equal division of labour with each artist making sure they get their fair share of album time. However, Samson and Delilah does work, wonderfully so. It is a most beautiful album not scared to use passages of silence to heighten the impact of the layers of guitars, strings, woodwind and horns creating, not some awkward fusion or clash of styles but a coming together of classic and folk.

In the end I gave up trying to work out what made this work and just listened again, and again. - Americana UK

Naming yourselves in honour of one of the most brutal marital betrayals in mythology is presumably an ironic gesture by husband and wife duo Sam Lench and Anna Zweck. The eponymous album is apparently a celebration of their relationship, though thankfully that is not too obvious (John and Yoko love-in here) in an eclectic series of songs that meander around different genres while maintaining a sense of continuity.

Zweck is gently spoken Australian, classically trained, while Lench comes from an indie background. This is not exactly a mix of those two styles, but rather a classically inspired song cycle with a strong eye on pop melodies. It reminds me rather of another collaboration between husband and wife, that of Craig and Sharon Fortnam of the North Sea Radio Orchestra. The vocals may not be as breathtaking and the music less colourfully baroque and polished, but as a debut it is certainly accomplished.

'Motherbird' is an Eastern European style stomp, all tubas and trombones, the kind of thing which would be intolerable for more than one song, though fitted within this context, it works perfectly. Much of the album was recorded at the couple’s home while other locations included family houses, the church where they tied the knot and studios around the country.

'Dreams of Yesterday' stands out; an unrelenting crescendo, building in scope and volume, occasionally relenting with Zweck’s soft voice muscled out testing by what sounds like a couple of marching bands. Lench’s voice may not be as well mannered as his wife’s, nor as distinctive, but is more than adequate on songs such as 'Angels Said' and 'Place To Be'. You suspect that they may concentrate on Zweck’s singing in the future, which would be a pity as the contrast is refreshing.

Some songs are more obviously about the relationship; 'Starlight in the Afternoon', about time spent apart at opposite ends of the earth, shows off Zwecks whispery throaty voice perfectly to a backing of droning and distantly heard drums.

Samson and Delilah may not bring any temples crashing down quite yet, but their album is unusually colourful and textured and there are some genuinely outstanding songs and musicianship here. - Penny Black