SINCE the 2012 release of their second album 'The Fragile', Yorkshire duo Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow have become a must-see act for their stunning and delightfully unconventional emotionally charged performances.

As well as high praise for their extensive live work, they are acknowledged as one of the strongest songwriting partnerships on the contemporary folk scene. Where 'The Fragil'e explored the vulnerable in our society; the frailty in human relationships, in the natural world and in the individual self, their new album 'The Hum' reveals the pulsing undercurrent of optimism, grit and mettle in migrating people, the oppressed, and the disenfranchised. This album stands tall in the face of deprivation, dictatorship, austerity and suppression, both here in the UK and globally. Belinda and Heidi’s desire to confront, explore, reflect and even celebrate is taken to a new level in every sense.

The Hum is not about musical prowess, rather it is a nest of ten songs crafted carefully over time by the duo, then further developed by the vivid imagination of Mercury nominated producer and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver. Gerry’s yearning strings, inventive percussion, swooning guitars, autoharp, pedal steel and occasional dashes of electronica flow seamlessly around Belinda’s signature piano and accordion playing and their perfectly matched, distinctively unaffected, earthy voices, here, stronger than ever, with even more bold and striking harmonies.

The natural world is central to the duo’s songwriting; always running in parallel is the interaction of humans with animals and the environment; the contrasts, the connections. Both lyrically and musically, Belinda and Heidi’s powerful, thought provoking and deeply moving songs are infused with an honesty and empathy that will disarm even the hardest of heart.

O'Hooley and Tidow play Bristol's Folk House on March 21. For more details visit www.ohooleyandtidow.com