Bob Fish

Scott Ballew has created something that rivals the work of John Prine, Townes VanZandt and even Mr. Zimmerman himself. Rio Bravo keeps sneaking up on you, mixing music and metaphors in the most amazing ways. If it’s not a masterpiece, it’s pretty damn close.

Iron and Wine’s ‘Light Verse’ traverses times and tides, spinning a web that irresistibly draws you in. It leaves you wondering how Sam Beam can make such a complex record sound so easy.

While Moris Tepper’s life has taken directions far off the beaten path, his muse and music are legendary. Challenging and charming, Building A Nest marks a welcome return that adds to that legacy.

With Sister Moon, Andrea von Kampen illustrates, with style and grace, her concern for humanity and our connection to nature while also illuminating a way forward.

Rosali’s Bite Down is an album that rocks a little harder and feels a little bolder. Reflecting her drive, determination and perseverance, she’s living each moment as fully as possible. This is one to savour, an album that you’ll keep returning to.

On ‘The Closest Thing to Silence’, Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer fearlessly connect, creating a remarkably coherent album that offers exciting new narratives.

On Charlie, Swimming Bell deliberately takes an alternative musical path, singing and playing with colours not often found in the scheme. Charlie establishes its own parameters, transcending simple labels to create a sound all its own.

Hafdís Huld’s ‘Darkest Night’ astonishes with its ability to take on extraordinary real-life personal and family stories with such a tender sense of grace.

Demi Spriggs’ music is hard to pin down; on ‘a boy called ear’, she manages to sound traditional and modern, otherworldly and haunting, mysterious and melancholic, intriguing and exciting.

Throughout Come Swim, Emma Gatrill creates a unique musical alchemy. By turning the writing process on its head, she gains the freedom to reinvent her music and, by doing so, has established herself as one of the most inventive women in music today.

The world and music of cabane is not simple, but the beauty of Brulée is undeniable. Four years on from Grande est la Maison, Belgian writer/composer Thomas Jean Henri has crafted another unimaginably beautiful volume of songs.

On Vision of Three, the latest album from the Scandinavian trio Northern Resonance, they blend traditional and modern music in ways that know no boundaries. It is joy unbound.