Albums

It would take a stone to remain unmoved by its magic. The Wavy Bow Collection is a vital display of top-class Irish Traditional music played with skill and passion

Featuring a host of special guests including Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Marc Block’s latest offering carries plenty of weight and substance and is well worth spending time with to discover its manifold riches.

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.

With Spectre, Archie Moss and Tom Moore set out to help re-define how British instrumental folk music is made. They have certainly added something that warrants attention.

It’s not often you listen to a voice and just know it is one that everybody needs to hear, such is the case with Juni Habel on All Ears. Her voice and songs harken back to an earlier era, one where you only needed a guitar and a song.

With their album ‘Cliffs’, Garefowl have produced music that effortlessly evokes the sights and sounds of the remote, rocky, seabird havens that make up the St Kilda archipelago. A truly satisfying album.

Having been something of a treasured secret among the musical cognoscenti for the past decade the time has come for Sam Burton to take his overdue place on the wider stage.

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

Dainty, decorative and masterful are never so well combined, Ida Lune is audibly reminiscent of a singing crystal glass and the saintly echoing of a Renaissance church choir that lingers in its path.

There is something pure and beautiful about ‘Home Recordings’ that finely balances and sets it apart from any other Martin Simpson album I can think of. A wonderful achievement and gratefully received.

Jim White’s Misfit’s Jubilee illustrates that you don’t always need to be stone-cold sober to see the realities of today. You just have to be honest. That’s the kind of truth we all can use.

Sam Amidon’s self-titled release is a dreamy listen and despite its ‘folktronica’ vibe, a curiously ageless recording. A handsome and entirely seductive album.