The essence of The Little Unsaid’s songcraft is that good things (strange and remarkable things, too) can come out of bad times or uncomfortable situations. Their music is all about those contrasts, and Fable illustrates them more sharply than anything they’ve done before.

Liberating old forces and combining them with the new, Montparnasse Musique have unleashed a giant of an album with Archeology, one that sweeps you up in an irresistible new wave of music.

Peter Knight and John Spiers head out on their festive tour next month. They will feature some songs and tunes to reflect the season and a generous helping of material from their albums ‘Well Met’ and ‘Both in a Tune’. Not to be missed.

With ‘Out Of This Frame’ Rachel Taylor-Beales expresses large on a widescreen canvas that allows room for all her artistic faculties to breathe. This is an album that invites you in for a long ride, and it will not disappoint those who invest the time to get on board.

Featuring a number of special guests, Neal Heppleston’s ‘Plankton and the Whale Shark’ is mesmerising in its weird beauty; a strange, hypnotic soundscape that will magnetise and bewitch.

Lisa Knapp, Marry Waterson and Nathaniel Mann join forces as the Hack-Poet’s Guild and knock the ball out of the park with their lead single ‘Daring Highwayman’.

Gog Magog, the highly anticipated follow-up album from The Trials of Cato is an album packed with genre-defying music that will surely be greeted with as much enthusiasm and praise as their debut.

Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray have been duetting on fiddles since their teens, so ‘Fiddle Tunes’ has been a long time coming; an undiluted return to their folk roots…with their diverse track record, who knows what they may dish up for next…volume 2 would be nice.

First released in 1974, Mick Hanly and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill’s “Celtic Folkweave” slipped under the radar, picking up a cult following in later years. Beautifully presented, re-mastered and including previously unreleased tracks, this folk classic is finally getting the attention it has long deserved.

Elspeth Anne’s ‘Mercy Me’ is her third album, and the subjects of many of its songs come from a series of dreams and nightmares prompted by the covid lockdown. It is an album full of ideas, but more importantly, full of feeling, a raw, moving triumph.

There is an elegance and quiet confidence throughout Hushman that makes it hard to resist. Full of balance, elegance and consideration…Perfectly pitched and performed, Ewan MacPherson’s Hushman is a little masterpiece of confidence and understatement. Wonderful.

It’s been another great year for Irish music and last night’s RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards saw wins for Ye Vagabonds, Cormac Begley, Susan O’Neill, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, the olllam and Cathal Ó Curráin.