Jacken Elswyth is a London-based folk musician, banjo player, and instrument builder.
In her music making she is focused on exploring traditional tunes, developing extrapolations on folk styles and techniques, and investigating drone, ambience, and improvisation within and beyond folk music. She organises the Betwixt & Between tape series as one avenue of these investigations. She plays and records solo and in collaboration - with Shovel Dance Collective, Sullow, and others.
She also builds and repairs banjos and other instruments, with a focus on folk craft and vernacular styles. This practice and these instruments inform and facilitate her music making.
"Jacken Elswyth is an increasingly recognisable name on today’s folk scene. A member of the celebrated Shovel Dance Collective, she has been building a reputation for some time as a solo folk musician, an improvisational banjo player, and the brains behind the Betwixt and Between label."
- TradFolk interview
"[Jacken is] an emotive player with high technical ability. Further, she builds banjos and other instruments, and that intimate knowledge of the bones and fibers holding everything together means that her playing has very few cracks. "
- Foxy Digitalis interview
