New Routes

Bête Noire 

Across the genres; folk/jazz/blues and more, singer-songwriter-pianist Angie Collins brings the melancholy as well as dark humour through her warm, smokey tones reminiscent of Norah Jones or Amy Winehouse accompanied by Cambridge’s finest music icons 🖤

Lost Robins

The next generation of British folk rock has finally arrived thanks to ‘Lost Robins’, and they’re not being quiet about it. Formed in the summer of 2025, this ragtag of seasoned young musicians from the Cambridgeshire and Fenland areas are hellbent on keeping folk music alive and kicking out at the modern world. Their stacked-up symphony of electric guitars and hard-hitting bass’n drums, peppered with the fiddling’s of accordion, flute, and violin creates an organised mess that would make the Levellers proud. 

You might be forgiven at first glance for confusing them with a country pub session band, swapping stories and songs (from either 200 years ago or last week) late into the night around the big table at the back until the landlord begs them to go home. And whilst all this is of course true, this band undoubtedly hail from a community that takes their music, culture, poetry and history very seriously. They are a band out of time, just old enough to cultivate respect for the tradition that came before them, and just young enough to carry that torch forward. 

They haven’t been together long, but they’ve hit the ground running, bagging two major gigs and a fully recorded album before the summer was out. Since their debut gig at the Pigs Ballroom stage, Camp- Bestival, 2025, the band have released their first single – Shotgun. An assertive, politically charged song about keeping your lust for life in a world that hates those that try and loves the apathetic. They since have hurled themselves at social media in an attempt to get this track heard by whoever needs to hear it. Their next single, Hollow, a song with a similar theme, will be released on the 28th of October. 

All seven tracks of their first record, produced by Jake Day at the award-winning North Acre Studios, will be released as singles every two months until something happens or it’s time to make more. 

Emily Fraser

Emily is a singer‑songwriter whose work blends creative openness with a quietly arresting emotional depth. Her voice—with great range and agility—carries songs that are deeply personal and lyrically candid, drawing influence from artists such as Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling, Norah Jones and Kate Bush. Evolving gradually from lived experience, her writing translates intimate moments into a wide‑angled picture of life’s shifting landscapes. On stage, she is a compelling presence—powerful in impact yet understated in manner—holding audiences with a quiet intensity. She is currently progressing a long‑form recording project with collaborator Jonners Czerwik, expected to reach completion in the near future.

Smith and Brewer

Over the last ten years Smith And Brewer have played together all over the UK, toured with 10cc, Ralph McTell and Fairport Convention, amongst a busy performing schedule, and have played hundreds of shows together. Ben and Jimmy originally met at an event organised by Joan Armatrading for the acts she had chosen to support her on her 2015 tour. 

Although they originally planned to just write together, they soon realised that their different guitar playing styles and voices complemented each other and they started performing together regularly after their inaugural gig supporting Joan in front of a thousand-strong crowd. In 2024 they released their last album, ‘Back To The Country’ recorded over three days at Studiowz, a beautiful studio in a converted chapel in rural Pembrokeshire. Using a single stereo ribbon microphone, they recorded nine new songs in single takes. 

The recordings were then mastered for stereo, as well as Dolby Atmos, at Abbey Road Studios in London. As well as playing as a duo, their full band augments the intricate guitar work and vocal harmonies with the talents of their friends Sean O’Hanrahan on piano, Hammond organ and accordion, Fabian Bonner on double bass, Stuart Pringle on drums, and Malek Hyde-Smith on percussion. 

The first half of 2026 saw the duo take a short break to give Jimmy a chance to get used to looking after his new twins. The duo and the band are going to be playing again in the summer, and are booking shows for the end of the year into 2027, with a new full band album currently in the planning stage.