Thomas Blake

For their second album, The World That I Knew, Dublin-based duo Varo perform alongside a revolving cast of collaborators including members of Lankum, John Francis Flynn, Alannah Thornburg, Junior Brother, Lemoncello, Niamh Bury, Anna Mieke and more, picked judiciously from that fertile Dublin scene, and fostered by the sterling production of John ‘Spud’ Murphy. They track contemporary concerns through traditional song, and do so with beauty and fierce compassion.

While she grew up in Yorkshire, Iona Lane’s new album, Swilkie, is a love song to Scotland’s islands and the people who live there, and an impassioned plea for the conservation of wild spaces and communities on the margins. A relative newcomer to the region, she spoke to KLOF about how she came to know and love her adopted homeland, and how it came to inform her music.

Glasgow-based singer Quinie’s ‘Forefowk, Mind Me’ may have been several years in the making, and it may draw heavily on the songs of the past, but it feels like the perfect snapshot of a type of folk music that is unapologetically and gloriously present.

For their latest project, Remscéla, Milkweed engage in vibrant and vital ways with the Táin Bó Cúailnge, a foundational myth of Irish literary and historical tradition. They remain the most exciting band in folk music.

Iona Lane’s Swilkie is a masterful album full of heartfelt emotion and breathtaking songwriting, and the additional disc of live recordings casts the whole album as a journey from solo endeavour to collaboration, from the bud of an idea to a fully-realised work of art.

On Annie A’s ‘The Wind That Had Not Touched Land’, the boundaries between song, sound art and poetry disappear in a flicker or a haze, and the results are quietly mesmerising.

With Taba, Satomimagae has created a work of art full of wonder and mystery that builds upon itself in the most surprising ways. It speaks a different musical language, but learning that language is a joy and a reward in itself.

Following their 2012 debut, Màiri Morrison and Alasdair Roberts reunite on ‘Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia’. It’s a beautiful and glimmering album on which they also demonstrate how to wring intense emotions from the most minimal of ingredients.

When Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society get together, a singular kind of magic emerges that epitomises the creative spirit of the Chicago scene but is nevertheless unique. ‘Totality’ is the fullest possible rendering of that magic and an essential piece of work.

All of the tracks on MIIEN feel like journeys, proof that MIEN truly understand the psychedelic assignment. They have the will and the talent to take us into the unknown and do so in unexpected and diverse ways.

Zoé Basha’s impressive debut album, Gamble, contains a wealth of complex emotional layers, but at its heart is the joy of making new and truly exciting music.

It’s over five years since the last Sacred Paws album, but Jump Into Life is well worth the wait. It feels like the most fully realised example of their intriguing vision, tapping into a truly global set of influences to produce something complex and personal.