Albums

Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore’s long-awaited collaboration, Tragic Magic, is a radiant masterpiece of experimental beauty. Utilising antique harps and vintage synths at the Philharmonie de Paris, the duo transcends “new age” tropes with dexterous, modernist compositions. From the futuristic sweep of “Stardust” to the poignant solace of “Melted Moon,” it is a confident, immersive album that lingers in the memory long after its last notes fade.   

Many Hands’ There are Moss Balls in Paradise is a decidedly earthy take on ambient music, rough at the edges and hauntingly human. Triggered by a child’s grief over a dead fish, Henderson’s restless, freewheeling vision treads the line between tranquillity and uncanny depth. It is a watery ode to humanity and our fragile relationship with the natural world.

Over two decades after their last release, Chicago supergroup Pullman returns with III, a “quietly kaleidoscopic” triumph. Recorded between 2016 and 2023 following drummer Tim Barnes’s early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the album is a poignant, abstract meditation on camaraderie. Moving from fuzz-heavy instrumentals to shimmering soundscapes, it is an elegant, deeply emotive record that rewards multiple listens with its meticulous, heartfelt composition.

New York/Berlin duo Church Car—Big Daddy Mugglestone and Ian Douglas-Moore—debut with Church Of, a remarkably coherent album that feels like traversing a surreal role-playing game. Blending analogue synth, zither, and field recordings, the pair shuttles between grainy psych minimalism and structured melodicism. It’s a puzzling, adventurous journey where improvisational noise and avant-rock sparring constantly evolve into something new and exciting.

Recorded in the rugged Northwest Arkansas wilderness, Chaz Knapp’s Winter Music is a haunting, solitary audio diary. By blending field recordings of whistling winds and rushing water with acoustic improvisation and weary vocals, Knapp captures the raw vulnerability of the elements. It is a powerful, “microfolk” masterpiece—a rudimentary yet accomplished immersion into the beautiful isolation of deep winter.

Ahead of her upcoming tours with Stereolab and Jane Weaver, Emma Tricca has released a new live album, Prisms of Winter. Recorded in Shoreditch with Simon Alpin, the collection captures the raw, fragile intimacy of her songwriting against a backdrop of East London street sounds. It’s a soulful reimagining of her catalogue, offering fans a beautifully unpolished, heartfelt experience.

Expertly curated by Nyahh Records, An Irish Almanac is a sprawling 32-track survey of Ireland’s avant-garde. Spanning two discs, it treats “noise” as a broad umbrella for everything from dark drones and “occult freak-folk” to playful vocal experiments. While no compilation of this kind could ever claim to be complete, this detailed panorama offers a transformative map of a shifting underground scene, bursting with grit, mystery, and playfulness.

Erlend Apneseth Trio and writer Erlend O. Nødtvedt collaborate on Black Hauge, an album that expertly fuses experimental Norwegian folk with the poetry of Olav H. Hauge. Using samples of the poet reciting his own work, the music employs techniques from plunderphonics and musique concrète to create stunningly original and often uncanny tracks. It’s an exploratory, free-folk journey. A stunningly original album that combines elements rarely seen together.

Open Guitar (Volume One) marks a return of sorts to a simpler sound for D.C Cross, celebrating peace through acoustic mastery. Blending improvisation with composition, the album offers spacious, meditative soundscapes. From the urban nature-infused Antwerp Kangaroo to the epic NEVER GIVE UP OR IN., Cross displays a lightness of touch that proves calm can be found within chaos. A welcome, honest gesture.

Honed by high-profile support slots, Glaswegian songwriter Iona Zajac delivers a fiercely feminist and dynamically shifting debut. Bang traverses dream-pop, folk minimalism, and moody alt-rock, channelling the raw intensity of upsetters like PJ Harvey. Zajac is a songwriter with important things to say and a willingness to say them loudly and with a laser-like focus. Bang is a remarkably accomplished, statement-making achievement.

Our latest recommendations include an orchestral meditation on the American women’s suffrage movement, a dizzying joyride through the golden age of Thai popular music, Congolese rumba by Docteur Nico, Will Guthrie’s experimental percussion, and rare archival blues by Allen Ginsberg (with cameos by Bob Dylan and Don Cherry). Plus, Estonian wetland soundscapes to sun-drenched Laurel Canyon folk, from cosy winter solstice hymns to the sophisticated grooves of 1970s Ethio-jazz.

Mikey Kenney’s latest album, “Tiny Little Light,” is a bold, big-hearted triumph, balancing traditional fiddle music with the more experimental, idiosyncratic side of folk. Liverpool-based Kenney crafts a soundscape that is both intimate and expansive. From the village-folk energy of “Scarecrow Festival” to the rocking “The Dish and the Drain,” the irresistible interplay between Kenney’s fiddle and guest musicians make this a remarkable, smile-inducing release.