Albums

Awen Ensemble’s Cadair Idris presents proof that not only wooden instruments conjure a response to wilderness lands or scenic rivers. Woven from modern jazz repertoires with a mythic folk essence, this is an audacious and promising debut.

Afrobeat music from Chile might sound incongruous, but whether you are a fan of the genre or are new to it, ignoring Grietas, the latest release from Newen Afrobeat, would be a mistake, such is its driving power, authenticity, and message.

The open vistas and isolating landscape of Jeff Rutherford’s film, ‘A Perfect Day For Caribou’, are perfect for Marisa Anderson to explore in her improvisations on piano and guitar.

Needlefall, the new album from North Carolina’s Magic Tuber Stringband, is perhaps their most accomplished and cohesive record to date. An intense musical experience that’s also exceptionally rewarding.

On LORCAN, Vancouver-based Laucan and Brighton-based producer Samuel Organ explore ethereal folk and avant-garde electronica. Listen to the album opener, Aignish On The Machiar, featuring a field recording from a 1973 trip to the Inner Hebrides.

John Smith’s ‘The Living Kind’ is an understatedly emotional and introspectively melancholic celebration of hope and light in the face of despair and darkness…It’s a masterpiece.

Son of the Velvet Rat just keep getting better, and on Ghost Ranch, they are joined by several special guests, including Jolie Holland and Marc Ribot, to deliver what is unquestionably an album of the year.

Jack Francis’ Early Retirement is a ‘stupendous’ concept album about endings and new beginnings, riding out fallen dreams, and trying to navigate modern society as an old soul in a new world.

Bring The Tide In is a rather lovely ebb-and-flow quartet of poignancy-tinged songs that serve as a reminder of Iona Lane’s luminescent talent and is hopefully an early signpost of a new album in the not-too-distant future.

Molecules, the fourth full-length release from Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, seems to have been sprinkled with fairy dust and, while still mingling their jazz, blues, Americana and folk influences, glows with something special.

SAICOBAB are a four-headed beast birthed from the fertile soup of Japan’s underground music scene. There is a winning immediacy to everything the band does on NRTYA, making a glorious spectacle of the unexpected while leading you down a melodic garden path of twists and turns.

David Murphy’s ‘Cuimhne Ghlinn: Explorations in Irish Music for Pedal Steel Guitar’ is an incredibly confident debut album. Balanced against its elegance and the dreamlike sound of his pedal steel is a quietly adventurous spirit that is beautifully judged and unpretentious—an extraordinarily great album.