Held By Trees have released their new album, The Call of Home, out today (2 October) via Tweed Jacket Music / Low Port Music.
The follow-up to the critically acclaimed Hinterland marks a major change of course for the project, with the band moving away from purely instrumental music to make a record built around songs and voices.
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The album features nine vocal tracks, bookended by two instrumentals in the more familiar Held By Trees style. One of those is “Lay Your Troubles Down” with Martin Smith, which appears on vinyl for the first time.
The release is available now on vinyl, CD and digital formats. However, it will not appear on streaming platforms straight away, as each track is being released individually as a single first.
It is an unusual approach in the streaming era, and one that puts the focus back on the album as a physical object. That suits a record so steeped in the sounds of the 80s and 90s.
Behind the project is David Joseph, who describes the new record in simple terms. “I’ve made an album of songs with some of our friends singing,” he says. “It’s a love letter to the music of the 80s and 90s, when I was a youngster falling in love with music through my parent’s records and cassettes, and what I heard on the radio and on Top of the Pops.”
That sense of nostalgia shapes the whole project, with Joseph drawing on the music that first inspired him and the people who have helped him along the way.
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Those friends make for an impressive guest list. Joseph’s key musical mentors Martin Smith, Jason Upton and blues great Eric Bibb all take the vocal mic, alongside Simone Marie and Marc James. In another departure for Held By Trees, Joseph even sings on a few of the songs himself.
The album also brings a broadening of personnel, with new collaborators whose backgrounds stretch from Radiohead and Primal Scream to Wet Wet Wet and Delirious? They include drummer Clive Deamer, Simone Marie, guitarist Graeme Duffin, and Martin Smith and Stu Garrard.
The result is a line-up that brings together players from across British rock, pop and beyond, all working in service of the songs.
At the heart of the record is the familiar core band of Robbie McIntosh, Laurence Pendrous and Andy Panayi, who share a history with Mark Hollis and Talk Talk among many others. James Grant and Grant Howard also return, continuing a friendship and musical partnership with Joseph that now spans more than two decades in various forms.
Their presence gives the album a strong link to the textured, atmospheric sound that first defined Held By Trees, even as the project branches out in new directions.
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Thematically, The Call of Home is about coming home. “It’s on the theme of coming home; to reunion, redemption and the warming of the heart through sounds and stories,” Joseph explains.
“This album is a labour of love on many levels, a branching out of what this project is and can be. Over nine songs, bookended with two instrumentals, I hope all who listen find their way home to an embrace that this music can offer the soul.”
Visuals have always been an important part of Held By Trees, and the new album is no exception. Its striking original artwork was created by @BlankEmbrace.
The artwork helps set the tone, giving the album a visual identity to match its themes of home and belonging.
For fans who have followed the project through its instrumental releases, The Call of Home offers something new while keeping the same spirit. The mix of seasoned session players and heartfelt vocal performances makes it the most ambitious Held By Trees record yet in terms of scope.
Held By Trees will take the new songs on the road with a run of UK live dates. The shows begin at Chats Palace in Hackney, London on 13 November, before continuing into 2027 with dates in Bath, Chelmsford and Worcester.
With such a large cast of collaborators involved on record, the shows offer a rare chance to hear the album brought to life on stage. The full list of dates, with ticket links, is below.
13 November 2026 – Chats Palace, Hackney, London – Tickets
23 January 2027 – Rondo Theatre, Bath – Tickets
19 February 2027 – Chelmsford Social Club, Chelmsford – Tickets
2 April 2027 – Huntingdon Hall, Worcester – Tickets
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