Thomas Blake

Henry Martin, the latest offering from Edgelarks (Hannah Martin and Phillip Henry) is an album filled with positivity – resolutely optimistic, brilliantly played and a joy from start to finish.

The power of A Casual Invocation comes from its mystery: it feels at once ancient & modern. Folk music at its most transcendent, an antidote to the banal and a gateway to the weird.

David Ivar has made a record that sounds on first listen like it could have been recorded at any point in the last fifty years, but in reality is uniquely and intelligently current, an album of the year in every sense.

Stella Sommer’s ‘Northern Dancer’ is a stunning piece of work, full of hush and swell, profoundly evocative and brilliantly, lovingly composed.

Their previous release was one of the most innovative folk albums of the last decade, and on Receiver they up their game even further. The Rheingans Sisters have created a masterpiece of modern folk music as well as a captivating physical artefact.

On Fretted And Indebted, Alasdair Roberts brings focus to the traditional songs and singers that have inspired him and also illuminates some of his own considerable talents.

We talk to Jenny Sturgeon about the making of her new album ‘The Living Mountain’, the influence of Nan Shepherd’s writing, the Cairngorms, the benefits of the natural environment and more.

Nan Shepherd’s writing has found a perfect musical equivalent in Sturgeon’s stunning new album…a work of rare beauty: to hear The Living Mountain is to hear the song of the Cairngorms.

The Magpie Arc’s debut EP is a varied and brilliantly executed set of songs from a truly gifted group of musicians and bodes extremely well for what is to follow.

Martin Green goes well beyond the boundaries of traditional music with The Portal, a multifaceted artwork that is as original as anything that has come out of this strange year.

Wrackline is more than a mere collection of songs, it is a stunning and complete work of art, put together with great care and skill, performed with Hield’s distinctive magic.

McVittie never loses the wide-eyed sense of wonder at the poetry of the natural world. If she set out to reflect that beauty and wonder in music, she has succeeded admirably.