Beth Orton The Ground Above
For more than 30 years, Beth Orton has been our antenna to the cosmos, the poet laureate of forces too vast to take in all at once. Her records arrive patiently, unified by emotional focus rather than any single musical style. From the pioneering folktronica of 1996’s Trailer Park to the earthy classic-rock miniatures of 2006’s Comfort of Strangers through 2022’s self-produced Weather Alive, she has built a catalogue that exists proudly out of time, each album its own planet in an ever-expanding solar system.
If Weather Alive lived underwater, spectral and dreamlike, The Ground Above marks a resurfacing. It is her most direct and unapologetic music to date; profoundly urgent, embodied, and powered by a hard-won strength. Where the previous record unfolded in a suspended dreamscape, The Ground Above finds Orton firmly back on land, taking a giant intake of air. It documents survival, integration and renewal without denial, acceptance without resignation.
Throughout the album, Orton navigates aging, motherhood and identity, ideas of ambiguous grief, political unease, acceptance and endurance, and the ongoing choice to stay — in love, in art, and in the world. “Waiting” is one of the record’s most classically beautiful songs. “The song is a celebration of moving beyond the holding pattern fear keeps us in,” Orton explains.
On “Celestial Light,” Orton reflects on mortality and the awe of being alive. “I think about death often, not always morbidly, more as a way of stripping life back to its essential nature,” she says. “This song is an ode to solitude, finding peace with the loved and the lost, promising myself I will jump back into the world again someday, maybe.”
Sam Amidon is a singer and multi-instrumentalist (banjo, guitar, fiddle) from Vermont, US, now based in London, England. His most recent solo album “Salt River” was released by River Lea / Rough Trade in January 2025. In February 2026 he was featured on the album "Willows" alongside violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and in December 2025 Amidon and Ganavya released a pair of co-written and performed songs, "Would Be Better" and "Willow Street". He has previously released seven acclaimed albums of songs on Bedroom Community and Nonesuch Records.
Amidon's material for these albums often consists of adventurous reworkings of traditional American ballads, hymns and work songs, with the New York Times writing that Amidon "transforms all of the songs, changing their colors and loading them with trapdoors." The albums have been deeply collaborative in nature, inviting contributions from musicians such as Nico Muhly, Shahzad Ismaily, Bill Frisell, and on “Salt River,” saxophonist/producer Sam Gendel.
The release of “Salt River” comes on the heels of Sam’s work with choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan on the dance theatre music show Nobodaddy, for which Sam was nominated as “Outstanding Creative Contribution” by the National Dance Awards Critics Circle in the UK. He also worked on the recently released film “History of Sound,” starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, wherein Amidon served as a music advisor as well as performer on the soundtrack. The film had its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Previously, Sam Amidon has recorded or performed as a guest artist with musicians such as Bon Iver, The National, Dijon, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Gloaming, Lonnie Holley, Manami Kakudo, Jacob Collier, Marc Ribot, and Beth Orton, among many others. He has appeared internationally as a soloist with ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, The Aurora Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra with Pekka Kuusisto, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Oregon Symphony, Roomful of Teeth, and the Britten Sinfonia.
