VIDEO: Watch Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman talk to Phil Hewitt/SussexWorld about their new tour

Almost A Sunset comes out on Iscream Music UK on March 17. They play Shoreham’s Ropetackle Arts Centre on Wednesday, March 22.

Their seventh album, Almost A Sunset offers a collection of thoughtful, varied songs that range from re-worked traditional ballads to the off-piste storytelling style that has become their trademark.

Recorded at Devon-pace in their studio on Dartmoor over the course of a year, the couple explore favourite characters, childhood memories and deep emotion to pull together a collection of songs that demonstrates their musical versatility, a sharp interest in the world around them and their own unique perspective on the folk genre. For the album, Kathryn and Sean were able to call on the talents of their teenage twin daughters Poppy and Lily. Poppy sings backing vocals on the opening track Eavesdropper whilst Lily's artistic flair can be seen in the striking photography used for the album design. As Kathryn says: “The girls have provided inspiration for many of our songs over the years but it lovely that they feel they can help us out in a more practical way as they grow older and their talents shine through.”

Sean added: “To be honest, even without the pandemic, the album would probably have taken five years for us to do because we like to take our time. We don't feel any particular pressure to be on the cycle of tour album tour album. We are in fortunate position where we’re not involved in any other projects and when we release an album it is something that we like to hone and craft. When you are gigging obviously you have got other commitments in terms of dates but there's something very different about recording and we like to do it in our own way. Really an album happens when we have got a body of work, maybe half a dozen songs, and then we start to form a picture in our mind of what we want to do with it.”

As Kathryn says: “It is just a collection of songs. We're not artists that set out to have a theme and follow a particular path… or at least we haven't yet. It is just about the songs and the stories that we are interested in telling. We started recording the album about a year ago. We do live on Dartmoor and so we do take things nice and steady at our own pace!” There are a range of inspirations, as Kathryn explains: “There's a song on there called Rope Dancer and it came about because during the pandemic we spent quite a while reminiscing and talking to our teenage daughters about what we used to do before they came along and the fact is we used to do a lot of touring in North America and we were telling then about that. And we went to Niagara and I remember the story of the man who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope and that's how this song came along.”