Melanie McGovern

This is an excellent album, and one that provides a vivid visualisation of salty sea and sunrise. A story of America as narrated by a 21st Century voice that feels so wisely ancestoral in its huskiness.

Oh My Days is the third release from The Memory Band folk collective who tour with often up to as many as ten members, including Adem Ilhan (Adem), acclaimed folk/electronica artist in his own right.

It’s rather a surprise to find this Washington/Seattle harmonica brandishing trio was in fact borne from the disbandment of Pretty Girls Make Graves. Since their 2007 formation, The Cave Singers have been signed to Matador, releasing two records with the New York label before signing to Jagjaguwar in June of last year; and with whom they now release No Witch.

The Loafing Heroes call to mind dreamlike percussive soundscapes, to a lo-fi anti-electronica Efterklang. Where have they gone the amblers of yesteryear? Where have they gone, those loafing heroes of folk song, those vagabonds who wander from one mill to another and bed down under the stars?

Folk Radio UK talks to Californian born musician Alela Diane. Alela gives an intimate insight into her latest album ‘Alela Diane & Wild Divine’. She explains the reasons behind the new sound she has created and what inspires her.

Following up their split EP with Karine Polwart, acclaimed Scottish folk trio Lau have embarked on another collaborative effort, this time with London based musician Adem. Read Melanie’s review below.

Emily Jane White’s new album, Ode to Sentience is an album of darkness and mystery. Vocally her dulcet tones have been likened to Mazzy Star and Cat Power, a voice that is at once both rich and wispy, a subtle whisper sucking you in much like the darkness she utters of being intoxicated by.

What an end to a great year for Bella Union, their issue of John Grant’s Queen of Denmark debut successfully found itself in most magazine and national newspapers’ ‘Albums of 2010’ features, and he too headlined the last uniting of label artists at Union Chapel in the summer.

The Midsummer Nights Dream stage set up at the Royal Festival Hall, complete with lamps, foliage, a tree strung with fairy lights and a starry backdrop marked the occasion as magical before Australian siblings Angus and Julia Stone, and their Transatlantic band, even set foot on stage.

Kate Stables is the staple of folk project This is the Kit, who, alongside long-time collaborator Jesse D. Vernon, perform ordinarily as a two-piece splitting their time between Bristol and Paris. Initially noticed in 2006 thanks to a Folk Off compilation featuring other nu-weird-folksters Animal Collective and Vashti Bunyan, This is the Kit were hailed as a refreshing British folk act; with BBC Radio’s Huw Stephens referring to Kate as …

With their second recording Wild Go receiving airplay on UK shores Dark Dark Dark’s pitch and note perfect re-creation of their Balkan inspired tracks tapped out a heartfelt oscillation between liveliness and loneliness, with the precision of it all framing their Eastern-folk and pitch dark jazz hybrid.

The candle-lit environs of Dalston’s Cafe Oto felt a particularly apt setting for chamber-folk five-piece The Magic Lantern to host their single launch party. Amongst the flickering tea-lights atop wooden tables, decorated with remnants of Organic beer and homemade cakes, a crowd of friends, family and listeners new and old gathered.

Sparrow and the Workshop released their debut back in April; the reception of which has shocked even the band itself. They may be based in Scotland but this band actually comprise of a Scotsman, Welshman and a Chicagoan girl…

Hi54LoFi artist A Singer of Songs, Lieven Scheerlinch has collaborated with New Zealander, Hollie Fullbrook aka Tiny Ruins, which perfectly unites the whispered dreamy folk of the pair.

Despite the departure of Claudia Deheza from the band a month ago, the remaining School of Seven Bells members (now duo) played an impressive show at London’s Heaven last week.

Squinch Owl is the musical moniker of singer-songwriter Sofia Albam, and while the image of a squinching owl may seem to embody a creature that is fearful and shy, the voice of this artist is anything but a passing flutter.

Minneapolis chamber-folk sextet Dark Dark Dark embarked on a winter tour this week. The tour, which runs until the end of the month covers France, Belgium and much of the UK.

It’s strange to start at the end, but at the close of Micah P. Hinson’s string swathed set at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, he stated that “music speaks for you when you can’t”.