Albums

The purity and simplicity of both of these albums yield more and more depth with each repeated listen. This is reflective music in its truest sense. The more you listen, the more you find. Excellent.

The Castra Leuca Trio preserve and respect the culture of the past, but interpret in new ways. Premeiro Andamento is a high-class debut album featuring consummate musicianship, seek it out.   

All three songs have that timeless quality. Listened to out of context it would be difficult to tell the ancient from the modern. This is an important feature of O’Neill’s gifts as a singer and musician.

On Bring Us In, the clarity, the harmony and the arrangements offer a good picture of what Marisa, Jack and Davy have to offer – full of style and, yes, quirky but good quirky. Now we can hopefully look forward to the full long-player.

Sahari is a truly captivating release, with melodies that will linger long in the memory.  An album of unbridled optimism in the dream for the end to the struggle and that the world will learn not only to open its heart and mind to the Saharawi, but to all refugees.

Smith & McClennan have triumphed on this debut release, in creating personal music that tells us more about who they are than we’ve ever heard before and suggests they’re only at the beginning of a fruitful musical adventure.

With The Only Ones, The Milk Carton Kids’s return to their close harmony and acoustic guitar approach creates a powerfully intimate experience and one that deserves to be shared.

Over the course of forty minutes, in what often feels more like a piece by Steve Reich than disciples of Jerry, Garcia Peoples stake out new territory building on what has gone before while firmly headed toward the future.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy has crafted a disc that sounds comfortable and warm while dealing with the uncertainty of what lies ahead. The here and now is all we have at the end of the day, and that’s more than enough.

With a repertoire ranging from raunchy to raw, wistful to utterly tragic; the show is a triumph from start to finish. Understandably, the applause continues long after Ye Vagabonds have taken their leave.

This is an excellent album in so many ways. Nick and Becki’s own compositions fit well with the traditional pieces and whole works together in such a way that is rare to find. If you don’t listen to this, you will be missing out on a great album.

New Ways is about being in each moment and feeling it to it’s fullest. And it imbues every decision on the disc. Leif Vollebekk has captured time in a bottle, distilling moments with a clarity that captures the essence of each experience.