Sam Carter - Silver Horizon

Over his ffteen-year career, Midlands-born guitarist and songwriter Sam
Carter has earned a reputation for vivid, heartfelt songwriting and
captivating live performances
He is a highly regarded instrumentalist, renowned by many as "the fnest Englishstyle fngerpicking guitarist of his generation" (Jon Boden). Sam has appeared on
national TV, including Later... with Jools Holland , won a BBC Folk Award, and
toured the world, sharing stages with folk's leading lights, including Richard
Thompson, Eliza Carthy, Martin Simpson, and Sam Sweeney.
Carter released his last studio album, the acclaimed Home Waters (2020), during
the pandemic. After touring extensively once the world opened up, he felt called
away from the chamber folk of Home Waters. "My writing and listening shifted,
probably due to the isolation", explains Sam. "Storytelling gave way to something
more impressionistic and abstract. I found hope and solace in escapism." During
the summer of 2022, he allowed his writing to be infused with his love for the
ethereal textures of slowcore and dream pop bands such as Low and Cocteau
Twins, and Silver Horizon began to take shape.
With renowned producer Andy Bell at the helm, Carter began recording Silver
Horizon in January 2024 at the remote Red Kite Studios in Wales. Armed with his
1966 Gibson ES125 electric and a collection of effects pedals, Sam cut the core
tracks in three days with bassist Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman, Nadiene Shah) and
drummer Evan Jenkins (Robben Ford, Matt Scholfeld) before guitarist Stuart
McCallum (The Breath) wove his epic reverb- drenched soundscapes around
many of Silver Horizon's songs. Rowan Rheingans (Lady Maisery, The Rheingans
Sisters) added backing vocals, bringing a soulful depth to tracks including
'Through The Night', while Ian Stephenson (Kan, Baltic Crossing) contributed
measured harmonium, adding texture to tracks such as 'Boxes and Bags'.
The opener and title track 'Silver Horizon' ushers in the album's central theme. "It's
a kind of prayer from the perspective of a person at a turning point. They're
asking the future--symbolised by the horizon--for the peace and reassurance they
know it can't give by its very nature, but they're asking all the same. It's not a
concept album strictly, but in each song, the narrator is either just about to or has
undergone a major change." In some songs, this theme plays out in a sense of
foreboding, as in the ominous 'If You Set Me Free', where Carter's increasingly
tense minor key guitar work sets the scene for a depiction of Stockholm
Syndrome. Elsewhere, in 'We're Still Here', we fnd ourselves on the other side of
an ordeal and share the narrator's relief when Carter and Rheingans duet on the
repeated line "It was touch and go for a minute there" over a John Martynfavoured guitar groove.
Beginning with Carter's inimitable fngerstyle guitar work before expanding into
an epic dream-like soundscape, album closer Sights Beyond the Sky is a spacethemed ode to the transformative power of a relationship. "I'm still dealing with
themes of love, loss, and change that have been a part of my earlier work, but at
the moment, sketching events in an impressionistic way instead of documenting
them in detail gives the songs more room to breathe." This seamless blend of the
otherworldy with the personal makes Silver Horizon the most remarkable album
of Carter's career and looks set to cement his reputation as a standout
songwriter of his generation. 

Tracks: Silver Horizon / A Place to Call My Own / Simpler Days / You Give Me
Life / Good Enough / Through the Night / We're Still Here / Boxes and Bags / If
You Set Me Free / All I Need To Know / Sights Beyond the Sky

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