Alex Gallacher

Paris-based singer-songwriter Aure releases her debut album printemps today via Mayway Records, marking the occasion with The Beginning, its key single and accompanying film. An album of thresholds written between endings and beginnings, printemps draws on the poetic minimalism of Leonard Cohen and Atahualpa Yupanqui, the enigmatic force of Lhasa and Jessica Pratt, and the precise economy of Bertrand Belin.

To celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which signals the end of Ramadan for Muslims around the world, Lachlan Dale, the manager of Worlds Within Worlds record label, has shared a new video session with Mustafa Faizi (vocals and harmonium) – one of the leading Afghan classical vocalists of his generation, now residing in Sydney, Australia. Mustafa is accompanied by Maharshi Raval on tabla.

Rua Rí has announced his debut album “Tell Your Mother I Saved Your Life,” out 1st May via Soft Boy Records, alongside new single and video “Johnny Workman.” Rooted in the streets, fields and familiar settings of Cobh and Cork, the album — produced by Kean Kavanagh — captures the fleeting moments of youth with warmth, humour, and grounded introspection.

Marisa Anderson shares ‘Sarvi Simin,’ the second single from “The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, Vol. 1,” out May 22nd on Thrill Jockey. The track — an ecstatic duet between Anderson’s guitar and Gisela Rodríguez Fernández’s violin — interprets a piece from a 1977 Melodiya Records release, transcribed while Anderson travelled by bus through southern Mexico.

Frankie Archer has announced her debut album “The Dance of Death,” out 5th June via prrr of the bear. Co-produced with Guy Massey, Archer reconstructs some of the oldest songs in the English canon — warping fiddle lines, processing her own vocals and driving the material with pulsing drum machines and colourful synths into “nu-ancient trad bangers.” New single ‘The Unquiet Grave’ is out now.

White Fence has shared Unread Books, the second single from Orange, due April 24th via Drag City. Where lead single Your Eyes punched and sparkled, Unread Books sinks into droning, heartbroken pop, driven by Alice Sandahl’s hazy synths and Dylan Hadley’s shuffling drums. Produced by Ty Segall, Orange is Presley’s first White Fence album in seven years.

Abigail Lapell shares the title track from her forthcoming album “Shadow Child,” featuring Frazey Ford. Ford’s unmistakable voice meets Lapell’s over sparse guitars and theremin, while a stop-motion clay animation Lapell created years ago serves as the perfect visual accompaniment.

Sam Grassie shares “The Burning of Auchindoun,” a stirring reimagining of a traditional Scottish folk ballad from his forthcoming debut, “Where Two Hawks Fly,” due 10th April via Broadside Hacks. Coloured by ponderous double-bass, mystical flute and compelling fingerpicked guitar, it’s flighted with equal parts fantasy and foreboding. A UK headline tour kicks off later this month.

The video for River Days — visuals by Nina Maria Moslechner — shares the same sun-bleached, grain-softened quality as Natalie Wildgoose’s music: images that already look like memory. The song itself is a midsummer diary entry, caught at its edges rather than its centre. Rural Hours arrives April 15th via state51.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew runs from Ry Cooder’s easy-rolling “The Old Man and Me” to Brion Gysin’s cut-up disco, recorded at nearly 70 with Don Cherry on pocket trumpet. Pharoah Sanders steps out of Coltrane’s shadow, Bex Burch beckons spring, and Andrew Wasylyk sends songs to six singers who post their vocals back…like postcards.

This week’s Mixtape stretches, twists, and shapeshifts — from Glasgow’s Uzganc choir to a collaboration between Weirs and The Magic Tuber Stringband, recorded inside Virginia’s pitch-black Crozet Tunnel. In between: music from Spencer Cullum, BIG|BRAVE, Wendy Eisenberg, Bill Orcutt, Mongolian artist Hugjiltu, Colleen, Prymek & Sage, balladeer Wheatie Mattiasich, harpist Rhodri Davies, and Oliver Barrett’s tender memorial to family and memory.

Spencer Cullum opens the door to his Nashville garden shed for the latest Off the Shelf — the makeshift studio where Coin Collection 3 came to life. The final chapter of his trilogy finds the British pedal steel player turning to English folklore for solace amid the noise of the modern world. His ten objects tell the story.