Albums

Iris Dement is not dictated to by label demands and deadlines, so when she releases her first album of original material in over a decade, she has something to say. Workin’ On A World is insightful, thoughtful and essential listening. This is the sacred now. 

On Aonaracht, Irish harper, composer and sound engineer Úna Monaghan is joined by Paddy Glackin, Saileog Ní Cheannabháin, Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn, Pauline Scanlon, and Jack Talty. The universe she creates is so carefully constructed; it’s thought-provoking, graceful, and complete, so why would you ever leave?

Just a few months on from the release of her stunning album ‘The Pivot On Which The World Turns’, Polly Paulusma has released a ‘sister’ album – ‘When Violent Hot Pitch Words Hurt’, that may even eclipse the original.

Volume 1 is an album packed with outstanding musicianship, on which Will Pound and Jenn Butterworth show themselves to be brimming over with ideas and possessed of a determination not to be confined by others’ expectations of what constitutes their style.

Featuring music from Joseph Allred, Rob Noyes, Jesse Sheppard, Isasa, D.C Cross, Nick Jonah Davis and many more, Buck Curran has curated a stunning tribute to the guitarist Steffen Basho-Junghans. This amount of musical quality and artistic depth is rarely found on one compilation. 

‘Dindin’ is an optimistic album, one on which Kimi Djabaté pays homage to his griot heritage while also artistically expressing the complexity of contemporary life in Africa, both the joys and obstacles.

Wayo is a raw, explosive and uplifting album and a totally immersive listen. The epithet “Vodou Priestess of Blues-Rock” sits well on Moonlight Benjamin; with this release, you will be rewarded in mind, body and spirit.

Joined by a number of gifted vocalists, Ben Walker’s ‘Banish Air from Air’ is a beautifully realised project, a fascinating, surprising and multi-faceted album of music, quite unlike anything you are likely to have heard before.

Hailing from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, through ‘Dark Island’, the folk-rock quartet Villages, deliver a musical love letter to their native homeland in all its wild beauty.

Recorded in 2022, Will Varley’s ‘Through The Lowlands’ is a live showcase of two decades worth of material…this album is a forceful reminder of the sort of power he brings to his performances, whatever the size of the stage.

If you know David Brewis primarily for his music with brother Peter in Field Music, you may not be prepared for the pastoral delight on offer with ‘The Soft Struggles.’ Featuring an abundance of guest players, it is an album emphatically worth spending some time with.

Ultimately, Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra’s ‘Racing the Storm’ represents collaboration in its richest form; and if there was ever an example that genre is dead in modern music (and that it can yield outstanding results), this is it.