By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Archive
Over the next few days, three of Europe’s oldest and most progressive music acts will be performing in the area – England’s Archive and Italy’s JoyCut in Elkton tonight and Germany’s Uli John Roth at the Sellersville Theater on April 29.
On April 27, the Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com), will present a twin-bill featuring Archive from England’s South London and JoyCut from Bologna, Italy.
The tour is billed as “bringing together two bands that share a common ambition to push musical boundaries and innovate — a meeting of kindred spirits and a cohesive package with a story to tell.”
Archive formed in Croydon, South London, in 1994 when Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths teamed with vocalist Roya Arab and rapper Rosko John.
The band’s debut, “Londinium,” released on Island Records in 1996, blended trip-hop and orchestral textures. After line-up changes, the band issued “Take My Head” (1999), “You All Look the Same to Me” (2002), “Noise” (2004), “Lights” (2006), “Controlling Crowds” (2009).
Archive followed with “Controlling Crowds – Part IV” (2009), “With Us Until You’re Dead” (2012), “Axiom” (2014), “Restriction” (2015), “The False Foundation” (2016), “Versions” (2020) and “Call to Arms & Angels” (2022).
Despite Archive’s arena status in Europe the tour represents the band’s first visit to North America.
“We’ve been together for 32 years and this is our first American tour,” said Keeler, during a recent phone interview from his home in Brighton, England.
“If I could have planned my career, it would not have been this way. We’re famous and have good fanbases all over Europe.
“But we never got support in the states early on. Also, we’ve always been a big band with up to eight people on stage and that’s expensive when you’re touring.
“Even from the beginning, we had no American tour because of money. We were going to do it early but the label pulled out of tour support
“We’re really glad that we now have the opportunity to play live for our fans in North America. It’s been a long, long wait for them and a really, really long wait for us.
“There always has been a good demand for us in Europe. Th best thing about touring is winning people over. I’m sure we’ll be well-received on this tour because the fans are going to get it.”
Archive’s most recent album is “Glass Minds,” which was released on the band’s Dangervisit label on February 27, 2026.
Produced by Archive with long-time collaborator Jérôme Devoise, “Glass Minds” was recorded at Metway Studios (Brighton) and Angel Studios (London) and mixed at Studio DES (Paris).
“Glass Minds” follows the 2022 triple-album set “Call to Arms & Angels”, after which Archive headlined their biggest shows to date.
“We recorded ‘Glass Minds’ over the last two years,” said Keeler. “We hired a place in the country to rehearse. We found a farm in Cornwall. We went there three times for two-week periods to do rehearsals.
“Then we went to Brighton to Metway Studios and spent a month recording there. Then, we spent a month in Paris at Studio DES recording with a French guy — Jérôme Devoise.”
“Glass Minds” is filled with intensity.
“It’s really down-tempo with a lot of minimal space,” said Keller. “I wrote most of the music and everyone was in on the lyrics. It’s a real song-based album.
“We’re a band known for improvising – but not so much on the new album. The songs tend to stay in original form. It’s nice for a change.”
Archive has gone through a lot of personnel changes over the years but always has revolved around the nucleus of Danny Griffiths and Keeler.
“It’s always been me and Danny deciding the creative path,” said Keeler. “The problem with a band artistically is that a democracy doesn’t work.”
Keeler has a definite link to the Quaker City.
“My grandfather is from Philadelphia,” said Keeler “He was an optics pioneer who moved to England when he was 18.”
In 1917, American-born Charles D. Keeler opened his first practice in Wigmore Street, London. He supplied high quality dispensing services and spectacles to the patients of ophthalmologists.
“This is my first time to go to Philadelphia,” said Keeler, who is a devout supporter of London’s Crystal Palace football team. “In all these years, I’ve only been to New York, L.A. and Denver.
“We did a pretty big tour of Europe with JoyCut recently and that went well. Now, we’re doing three weeks in North America.
“We’ll play as many famous songs as we can. When you haven’t played there for more than 30 years, that’s a lot of songs.
“32 years on and we’re still making music. We work really hard on our music. We push ourselves a lot.”
Video link for Archive — https://youtu.be/Y1gRbVRIDvQ.
JoyCut
JoyCut have built a long-standing relationship with North American audiences through extensive touring and media support.
JoyCut is a creative music outpost, never afraid to follow unconventional paths – including a trip to Chester County a decade ago for a show at Chaplin’s in Spring City.
Formed in Bologna and devoted to long-form sound research and exploration, the band has developed a language built around dual tribal and industrial drumming, electronic architectures, orchestral saturations and immersive dynamics, shaped by a cosmic blue sonic identity and extended instrumental compositions.
Sound remains central and uncompromised. From this position, their practice engages deeply with themes of the Anthropocene, the vulnerability of nature, animal farming and the erosion of human values.
Their latest album, “TheBluWave,” stands as a clear and monumental body of work devoted to the climate emergency, the melting of glaciers and the fragility of humankind — seeking love as a response to fear.
This independent, research-driven approach has led JoyCut to present works in major international cultural contexts, including the debut of the six-act opera, “KOMOREBI,” at the Biennale di Venezia, conceived as a soundtrack tribute to Japan.
In 2023, the project expanded further with “Wall Of Humanity.” It premiered in a sold-out performance with a 50-piece philharmonic orchestra, where sound, image and narrative converged to explore collective responsibility and the fragility of human ethics.
JoyCut were personally invited by Robert Smith to perform as headliners at the Meltdown Festival in London — an experience documented in the award-winning film “One Step Closer To The Moon.”
They were later selected by Brian Eno to contribute to the EarthPercent project with the track The Plastic Whale.
More recently, in June 2025, JoyCut contributed the remix “Drone:NoDrone” to “Mixes of a Lost World,” a project curated by Robert Smith featuring reinterpretations of The Cure’s latest album.
Video link for JoyCut — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7quB5VdkXxE.
The show at the Elkton Music Hall will start at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $30 standing and $48 seated.
This week, David Wilcox will be heading north from North Carolina once again – this time to perform a show at 118 North (118 North Wayne Avenue, Wayne, www.118northwayne.com).
“I’m enjoying music more than ever now,” said Wilcox, during a phone interview last week from his home in Asheville, North Carolina.
“I’m just doing the gigs – gigs that I really love. The songs that I write now are as good as any. Audiences say they love the new songs. I keep my sense of awe and gratitude.
“I love playing the new songs. The songs from this record are still showing me – showing more layers.
“They are showing me the way I am right now – opening channels that believe heart and mind – listening to what means most to me.
“When I write songs about what makes life worth living, I write songs about truth – times with friends and times for adventure.”
In August, Wilcox released his most recent album – “The Way I Tell the Story.”
With “The Way I Tell the Story,” Wilcox proves, yet again, that resilience isn’t just a survival skill—it’s an art form.
The record shimmers with musical sophistication but leaves just enough space for the listener to feel what Wilcox has always done best — tell the truth, gently but without apology.
The music he’s creating now comes from a place that can’t be faked.
In recent years, Wilcox’s life has been shaped by his wife’s Parkinson’s diagnosis — a shift that reordered his priorities and redefined his sense of time, love, and presence.
But rather than retreat, Wilcox leaned in. “Times get tough, and music gets good,” he says, and means it. These songs don’t dramatize. They don’t resolve neatly. They sit in the complexity of living—open-eyed, unafraid, quietly brave.”
Fans of the veteran singer/ songwriter heard a preview of some of these songs when Wilcox headlined a show at the Bryn Mawr Gazebo last August.
“Some songs are five years old, and some are one year old,” said Wilcox. “This process gave us a lot of opportunity to re-listen and re-think. We had three years to do that.
“I realized that I had been through some stuff and these songs reflect this.
“I love these songs. They shed light for someone you love. They deal with addiction. They deal with keeping optimistic during trying times.
“The song ‘How I Tell’ is about stories in the back of our minds and how we navigate through tough times.
“For example, the singer/songwriter life. You hear a lot of people talking about how difficult it is. You pick a task, and the adversity of this path is the best part. It gives you a life worth writing about.”
The music he’s creating now comes from a place that can’t be faked.
In recent years, Wilcox’s life has been shaped by his wife’s Parkinson’s diagnosis — a shift that reordered his priorities and redefined his sense of time, love, and presence.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually, and non-motor issues become more prevalent as the disease progresses.
On July 22, legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne died from Parkinson’s at the age of 76.
“The topics of one of the new songs is my wife’s Parkinson’s,” said Wilcox. “It’s a powerful song. It’s about a garage sale – giving away all the athletic equipment – letting go of the past.
“The past three years have been really rough for my wife and me. It’s awful. It’s also definitely an adventure.”
The adventure came to a halt recently.
“My wife Nance passed away four months ago,” said Wilcox. “We’d been married for 35 years, and she’s had Parkinson’s for the last 15. The last three years required a lot of care. It was a peaceful transformation when she departed.
“It created a lot of songs. It really showed me priorities. It had a lot of influence – sometimes in a subtle way.”
More than three decades into his career, Wilcox continues to push himself, just as he always has. Wilcox, by so many measures, is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style.
His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well.
It’s the result of a man giving himself over in gratitude and service to something bigger than himself.
After an early 80s move to Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, Wilcox started playing guitar and writing songs, processing his own inner workings and accessing his own inner wisdom.
Wilcox’s career began in earnest in the late 1980s, when his self-released debut, “The Nightshift Watchman,” caught the attention of A&M Records. His major-label debut, “How Did You Find Me Here” (1989), became an unexpected hit, selling over 100,000 copies largely by word of mouth and live shows alone — an unheard-of feat for a debut folk record.
Critics took note of his deft guitar work and emotional clarity, but it was the unassuming wisdom threaded through his lyrics that truly set him apart.
What followed was a string of acclaimed albums – “Big Horizon” (1994), “Turning Point” (1997), “What You Whispered” (2000) — each one refining his reputation as a songwriter who knows how to say hard things in soft, lasting ways.
Wilcox has continued to display his impressive craft as a songwriter – especially with the songs on “The Way I Tell the Story.”
“In my set this weekend, I’ll be playing four or five new songs – maybe more,” said Wilcox. “I know I have to do good balance with new songs and old favorites.”
Video link for David Wilcox — https://youtu.be/8a4muEioFkI.
David Wilcox’s show at 118 North will start at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $25.
