Albums

On Hex, Jon McKiel absorbs and repurposes a whole host of genres, but the overall sound – a trippy, fuzzy-edged pop – is strangely consistent, while the songs come from the realm of dreams, their edges softened by sleep but their message sharp and bright.

On her long awaited third solo album Wanderer, Ruth Moody’s striking vocals sketch out true life moments with a warm intimacy that stays with you long after the album’s end.

Convention has never been a preoccupation of either Jennifer Walshe or Tony Conrad, and In the Merry Month of May is unusual even by the standards of contemporary experimental music. It works as a showcase for two genuine greats improvising with fearless abandon.

Quintela is the debut album of Galician piper, teacher, composer and improviser Carme López. Building a nuanced world from minimal organic ingredients, it exists within and beyond the Galician piping tradition – reimagined through contemporary, avant-garde and feminist lenses.

Myriam Gendron’s art, for all its surface simplicity, harbours a wealth of emotional and aesthetic complexities which, when taken together, form a wholly unique sound. Mayday is the most moving and persuasive example of that sound to date.

Soundway return with another great compilation, Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, shining the spotlight on the innovative and creative Ghanaian burger highlife of the 80s.

For ‘Anniversary’, Abigail Lapell celebrates commitment and growing old together…with music and songs such as these, let’s hope her albums turn into an annual event.

Josienne Clarke’s ‘Parenthesis, I’ is an affirmation that out of the deepest darkness sometimes comes the brightest light…to paraphrase her lyric, Clarke spins her alchemy, she gives us hope.

Massachusetts duo Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards return with Making Promises, their fourth studio album, once more steeped in their close harmony folksy Americana with several stripped-back acoustic songs inspired by their marriage in 2021. 

Billed as an auditory journey into tinnitus, Lola de la Mata’s ‘Oceans on Azimuth’ is a unique and challenging piece of art. While never an easy listen, it somehow manages to become welcoming and even comforting.

On their debut album “Goodnight, Lad”, Sean R. McLaughlin & The Wind-Up Crows defy categorisation, delivering sonic shifts and unexpected moments to revel in.

While Fiona Apple’s drummer Amy Aileen Wood may prefer staying out of the spotlight, her solo album, The Heartening, may put an end to that. Challenging and invigorating, it examines the rhythms of a percussionist in a class of her own.