Thomas Blake

The Route To The Harmonium is another outstanding instalment in Yorkston’s body of work, a finely-wrought and elegiac album shot through with moments of real innovation.

Jonathan Day’s Spirit Library is the work of an artist who, whether through the experience of travel or through deep contemplation of his surroundings, has come to terms with his place in the world, and it is utterly beautiful.

It is no overstatement to say that Contradicshun is a masterpiece of shared creativity, the fullest flowering of a partnership that has been nurtured for fifteen years. It is Megson’s most complete album and their best to date.

Across the whole breadth of ‘The Fell’ there is a kind of alchemy at work: The Brothers Gillespie use ostensibly simple musical ingredients to create songs that feel like classics in the making. The Fell shows off British acoustic music in its best possible light.

On Au Cube is a buoyant rebuke of musical conservatism on which Alasdair Roberts is joined by Glasgow-based instrumentalist Neil McDermott and French traditional group Tartine de Clous.

Thomas Blake shares his Top 10 Albums of 2018 including releases from Xylouris White, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Joshua Burnell, The Furrow Collective, Jack Hayter, Kitty Macfarlane, Cunning Folk, Toby Hay and more.

As well as offering an insight into his new album Constant Companion, Cunning Folk talks to us about his influences, traditional music and more…‘Traditional music is living history. I’m joining in.’

There is a weight of history and a longing for a better world on The Young’uns’ The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff – it contains the past and it contains the future. It is a special achievement by an extremely talented group.

It is rare for an album of predominantly traditional material to sound as fresh and inspired as this, and feel both thrillingly contemporary and utterly timeless. Cunning Folk is making some of the finest acoustic music to come out of this country in years.

Reg Meuross has achieved something rare and important: he has reanimated a valuable piece of history, and he has done so with great sincerity and emotional depth.

The Furrow Collective are right at the very top of the game when it comes to traditional music. No-one else is as innovative and it is no exaggeration to say that if the future of folk music sounds like Fathoms we are in safe hands indeed.

Through the Wild is an album that is full of emotional peaks and troughs that marks the wholly triumphant return of The Willows, one of the most exciting, fresh and talented bands around today.