Quade - The Foel Tower

For their second album The Foel Tower, Bristol-based band Quade (Barney Matthews, Leo Fini, Matt Griffiths, and Tom Connolly) secluded themselves in a remote stone barn in a Welsh valley. The stark, windswept landscape profoundly influenced both the album and the band, shaping its melancholic yet hopeful tone.

Described playfully yet accurately as “doomer sad boy, ambient-dub, folk, experimental post-rock,” the album blends genre fluidity with emotional depth. Quade, a group of lifelong friends, used the creative process as a space for personal reflection and mutual support amidst life’s difficulties. Their music became a way to process and purge emotional burdens, with the valley providing both literal and metaphorical refuge.

The title references the real Foel Tower, a water control structure tied to a fraught colonial history, which the band researched and used as a metaphor for displacement, ecology, and rural sustainability. Produced by Jack Ogborne and mixed by Larry ‘Bruce’ McCarthy, the album is sonically dualistic—both intimate and expansive.

Ultimately, The Foel Tower is a deeply personal, place-rooted snapshot of a specific time and emotional state. It captures the transient beauty of creative and emotional sanctuary, resonating with themes of loss, connection, and hope.