The Latest
Abigail Lapell shares “Hazel,” the first single from forthcoming album Shadow Child — a nine-song cycle written during pregnancy after years of IVF and loss. Featuring Jill Barber, the track is a spare lullaby addressed to a child whose existence remains uncertain, its plucked guitar drifting through childhood imagery — sandcastles, snow angels, a name carried off on the summer air.
Wendy Eisenberg has shared Old Myth Dying, the second single from their forthcoming self-titled album, out April 3rd via Joyful Noise Recordings. Written during a fever in early 2024, the track pairs an urgent vocal performance with polyrhythmic guitar work, and signals a compelling shift toward folk songcraft — drawing on John Prine, Gillian Welch, and Joanna Newsom — after a decade of genre-spanning work.
Visible Cloaks have announced Paradessence, their third album, and shared lead single Disque featuring Motion Graphics. The Portland duo’s follow-up to the acclaimed Reassemblage draws its title from Alex Shakar’s concept of paradoxical essence — the schismatic core that makes something desirable through contradiction. The accompanying video, directed by Grade Eterna and Spencer Doran, transforms a London greenhouse into an uncanny 3D point cloud.
Very few come sprinkled with the kind of magic dust that coats the new album by Georgia Shackleton. A sense of history seeps into every corner of the recording. These songs are timeless and wise, bright and intricate, shot through with polar light and the glint of the sea. “From the Floorboards” is an album with a story behind it, and that story is worth telling.
L.Y.R. share the title track from their forthcoming album Dark Sky Reservation, out 3rd April via Real World Records. Named for those regions where light pollution is outlawed, the song turns that environmental concept inward — into doubt, hesitation, and the uneasy beauty of the unknown. Richard Walters’ ethereal vocals and Armitage’s dry spoken word make for a quietly devastating pairing.
Marisa Anderson’s The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, Vol. 1 draws from the late Harry Smith’s vast private collection to present nine guitar arrangements sourced from regions the US has been in conflict with since 1970. First single Taqsim for Guitar offers a meticulous reworking of a 1955 Syrian field recording — Anderson’s fretted instrument reaching, carefully, toward music it was never designed to hold.
North Carolina duo Tacoma Park have shared “Untied,” the first reveal from their forthcoming album Baltimore, due April 24th via Centripetal Force. Mastered by Chuck Johnson, the album finds Ben Felton and John Harrison at their most intentional — editing sprawling improvisations into something focused and cinematic, with electronics and acoustic instrumentation suspended in generous, deliberate space. Vinyl preorders are open now.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Sam Amidon. In this series, we ask an artist to select ten items from their home, photograph and talk about them; a form of storytelling through objects. Sam, along with Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, will launch their new album Willows at Kings Place on 24th February–an 80-minute concert of remembrance and renewal.
Shane Parish takes on the music of English electronic duo Autechre, re-imagining ten of the band’s 1990s songs solo on his Taylor acoustic — ultra-minimalist and organic. The intricacy of the numerous patterns becomes clearer with each listen, time signatures and tempos working together to create a tapestry of beautifully accomplished acoustic playing. Super clean, incredibly precise, and simply a pleasure to listen to — Autechre Guitar is a stunner.
Natalie Wildgoose has shared Nobody on the Path, the lead single from her forthcoming EP Rural Hours (15th April, state51). Wrapping her trembling vocals in guitar, piano, banjo and violin, the track draws on the physical rhythms of solitary moorland walking — music that moves the way the title suggests.
On ‘The Call,’ Montreal-based quartet Bellbird turn jazz presumptions upside down, with the rhythm section dictating form while horns take care of tempo and sonic character. Even as they run with carefree abandon, they never lose the listener. Every track features juicy melodies and audio patterns that are pleasing to the ears, launching themselves on a flight that sounds rather timeless.