This album is part of Lost Tribe Sound's Moss & Melee Series. Grab the bundle to receive a discounted price on the CD or digital version, here:
losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/moss-and-melee-i-old-growth
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Spanning nearly two decades, Andy Cartwright's exquisite output under the name Seabuckthorn requires little fanfare. Having relocated from the UK to the French Alps in the late twenty-tens, a plethora of battle-scarred guitars remain as Cartwright's main toolset. Yet, Seabuckthorn has subtly evolved from the primitive, Fahey-esque style of his earlier works (In Nightfall), through more experimental folk iterations heavily reliant on bowed strings and minimal percussive elements (They Haunted Most Thickly, Turns, A House With Too Much Fire). Reaching its most refined and sublime stage came as Cartwright began forging hymns of wood and steel that felt more at home on a mountain top than concealed inside some dank cathedral, shifting towards a deep droning, minimalistic approach (Other Other, Inlandscape).
For those who have followed Cartwright's career closely, 2024's This Warm, This Late (Quiet Details) felt like a culmination of all that had come before, honing and perfecting his alchemic meanderings. Masterfully operating in multiple universes at once, Seabuckthorn provided us with the Makers lens, allowing for a brief godlike fathoming of all the complexities before us. The compositions were grounded and tangible yet simultaneously felt impossible to grasp, fleeting, like vapor. In 2025, 'A Path Within A Path' (Laaps) drove percussion to the forefront, the strength of its concrete rhythms and bold strings harken back to the early records of his career.
Lost Tribe Sound recalled a past conversation had with Cartwright, asking him to one day return with an album full of rhythm-laden work. Nearly ten years on from the release of 'Turns' on LTS, he has gifted us with 'Never the Same River.' The title was born from Cartwright's weekly ritual of walking the same mountain route and each time noticing small differences in the landscape. This led him to the famous quote, "No one ever steps in the same river twice, for they are not the same person, and it is not the same river."
'Never the Same River' is Seabuckthorn's most rhythmic effort to date. Many of the songs began by assembling percussive objects—hand percussion, kitchen pans and capturing simple DIY beats. Cartwright then reshaped the recordings using software, where chance helped to deepen the material. Rhythms were stretched, fragmented and reassembled, allowing unexpected textures and patterns to surface. In many ways 'Never the Same River' is the spiritual successor to 'A Path Within a Path.' Interestly, NTSR also shares a kinship with William Ryan Fritch's 2021 album 'Built Upon a Fearful Void' who makes an appearance on song three, "Things We Cannot See."
To say that 'Never the Same River' is simply a rhythmic affair fails it, as Cartwright's instrumental decision making is better than ever throughout the album's fourteen songs. Eastern and western musical modalities meld in unexpected ways, bending to the Seabuckthorn way—high desert Americana collides with shapeshifting ambient ritual and rugged primitive. The album rattles and moans its way through an onslaught of curious initiations, creating sanctuary for the weary, bathed in chasmic detail and drawing breath from the cool mountain air.
At LTS, it feels important to connect the dots. Referencing others who have come before with adjacent musical concepts is always a worthwhile endeavor. Those who come to mind are Mystic AM, Oliver Doerell (Dictaphone) / Jawad Salkhordeh, early Geir Sundstøl, and oddly even Pierre Bastien's mechanized rhythmic delivery comes to mind.
released June 19, 2026
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"Never The Same River is such a weird, beautiful and experimental album. It’s so distinctive and so personal, which is probably why its so coherent. You can immediately hear that it’s something different, but it may take some time to realise how special it truly is."
CYCLIC DEFROST - (Bob Baker Fish)
www.cyclicdefrost.com/2026/06/seabuckthorn-never-the-same-river-lost-tribe-sound/
"One question remains, the one Cartwright leaves in your hand like a river stone: if you step twice into the same record, is it no longer the same record — or are you no longer you? Never the Same River chooses not to answer, and it is right to."
HWAEL MAG - (Antonio Martellotta)
www.hwaelmag.com/seabuckthorn-never-the-same-river/
"While there are fewer collaborators here than on last year’s “gorgeous tapestry,” A Path Within A Path, this may be his “loudest” album yet. Even if you haven’t been listening to Cartwright as long as I have, Never The Same River is the perfect place to start.
AN EARFUL - (Jeremy Shatan)
anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for-friday-cold-court
"Built from weathered acoustic sources, bowed textures, and percussive reinforcement, the record restructures his drone-informed language into more grounded, pulse-aware compositions. Cartwright’s approach retains its focus on micro-variation and tonal erosion, with repeated figures subtly rearticulated to emphasize temporal flux and material instability."
SON OF MARKETING - (Nicola Orlandino)
www.sonofmarketing.com/2026/06/20/album-streaming-seabuckthorn-never-the-same-river/
"The atmospheres are strikingly hybrid, blending Americana (*Troubled Spirits Be Gone*) with Eastern undertones (*His Mind Was a Blizzard*) and ancestral echoes (*Where There’s Smoke*); they converge on ambient paths characterized by a sense of rarefaction (*Spinning Totem*) and even incorporate post-classical leanings (*The Encompassing*)"
SOWHAT - (Peppe Trotta)
sowhatmusica.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/seabuckthorn-never-the-same-river/
"What makes Never the Same River particularly compelling is the way it resists easy categorisation. Elements of Americana, ritualistic folk, chamber music, drone and minimalist composition coexist without any sense of contradiction (...) In an era where so much ambient and experimental music can feel detached or overly polished, Never the Same River remains tactile and human. Every creak, scrape and resonance contributes to the atmosphere. The music feels lived-in rather than constructed."
WALL OF AMBIENT - (Euan Millar-McMeeken)
wallofambient.substack.com/p/seabuckthorn-never-the-same-river
"Never the Same River is actually the strongest Seabuckthorn album to date, as these beautifully immersive, evocative, and sublime pieces feel like a series of scenes from a haunted and psychedelic Western set deep in the Australian outback or somewhere similarly desolate and devoid of humans"
BRAINWASHED - (Anthony D'Amico)
www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33243&catid=101&Itemid=855
"weaves together motifs from diverse corners of the globe—ranging from primitive Americana to Eastern traditions and archaic folk. The guitar lines—fantastically recorded and, above all, superbly performed—along with the steel-string banjo woven into the mix, linger in the mind long after listening. Indeed, the overall mix is another highlight of this release."
ANXIOUS MUSICK MAGAZINE - (Marek “Lokis” Nawrot)
anxiousmagazine.pl/recenzje/seabuckthorn-never-the-same-river/
Best of May/June 2026 - INDIE ROCK MAG - Rabbit
www.indierockmag.com/article39160.html
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Originally released on Lost Tribe Sound. See Catalog:
losttribesound.bandcamp.com
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All music composed by Andy Cartwright
Andy Cartwright: acoustic guitar, drum and percussion processing, saz, autoharp, violin, banjo, taishogoto, voice and mixing
Phil Cassel: double bass, tuba, trombone
William Ryan Fritch: viola layers on "Things We Cannot See"
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Layout & design by R. Keane
Cover photo taken by Andy Cartwright in Peru, 2007
© Andy Cartwright / Lost Tribe Sound LLC
℗ Settled Scores LLC (ASCAP) 2026
