Petworth gig as Salt House celebrate "the hope and the light"

The band, comprising Ewan MacPherson, Anna Hughes and Jenny Sturgeon, has been a mainstay on the folk scene for over a decade, offering thoughtful and innovative interpretation of both ancient ballads and contemporary songs live.

“The band is more than ten years old,” says Jenny. “We have been going as long as that, and we have been lucky enough to tour all over the UK and abroad. But we just last year welcomed a new band member Anna.

“The intention with the band was always as a band of songs. We are all heavily influenced by traditional music and also traditional music within Europe in a broader sense particularly Scandinavia. We're into Scottish folk music and British folk music and also Scandinavian folk music. We write new songs in that vein, in the vein of traditional music. Sometimes we take old lyrics. We've done that with quite a lot of Scandinavian lyrics that we have translated into English. Quite a lot of the language of Scots is very similar to the Scandinavian words.

“But also we are particularly influenced by what is going on around us where we live and the politics of place and people and landscape. We work to carry on some of those sounds, and we're inspired by all of our collective knowledge from the traditional music scene which is what we are bringing into performance. Writing new music is something that we love doing and that makes up the biggest proportion of our material.”

The last album came out two years ago inspired by a documentary about the journey of Atlantic salmon.

“We have just been in the studio recording a new album now with Anna and I know I shouldn't say it, but the sound is amazing. We're now in an amazing position to have three songwriters in the band. Anna is a phenomenal singer and multi-instrumentalist and she has the most amazing musical sensibility. She fits in so well with the band and the commonality of what we are inspired by, and it's also a great opportunity to have three-part harmonies.

“The theme of the new album, I would say, is about sharing the hope and the light. It feels like there is a lot of darkness running through our times at the moment. For us we get a lot of hope from community and from the people around us and the places that we get to go to. Luckily we have access to green spaces which we can enjoy.”

The album should be out in the autumn. For the moment the title is a work in progress, Jenny says: “But I think people will feel that the album is different. We have developed the sound throughout all of the albums that we have made but particularly on this one with the new voice and also the different style of songwriting that Anna brings. All our albums are about a musical evolution.”