Featured Albums of the Month

The Furrow Collective are simply one of the most formidable combinations of musicians in today’s folk music scene, and in “We Know by the Moon”, they have created one of the year’s outstanding albums.

Honey & the Bear’s “Away Beyond the Fret” is a remarkable album, especially for capturing profound personal moments alongside folklore, history, nature, superstition, and awe-inspiring tales. They live it like they sing it, with open minds, ears and hearts.

Chris Brain’s ‘Steady Away’ is an introspective and reflective offering. Intelligently written and considerately handled, it’s everything a second album should be; an excellent album by a musician really starting to bloom.

Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain’s ‘Double You’ goes beyond virtuosic; it’s also layered with emotion, appreciation for style and tradition and the freedom of just playing. You are left feeling that this partnership was inevitable and absolutely necessary…an essential release.

Make The World Anew attempts in a small but determined way to achieve the edict set out in its title, and it succeeds resoundingly. It is the Melrose Quartet’s most upbeat and accomplished album to date.

Adele H’s voice is dripping with passion and personality, and the transition to piano-based songs on Impermanence has allowed that voice to flourish. It is a wonderful work of art, brimming with confidence and bursting with important questions about womanhood, metaphysics and music.

On Dreamer Awake, Rachel Sermanni delivers surprising, touching and hopeful moments alongside darkly delicate, atmospheric folk songs and spellbinding experimentalism. Ultimately, it is the sound of a spectacularly gifted songwriter growing personally and artistically in the face of pain and difficulty.

Having become mainstays of the folk, roots and acoustic scene, Gilmore & Roberts’ ‘Documenting Snapshots’ is a magnificent, mercurial album that will cement and further enhance their reputation as purveyors of the finest-quality music.

On Galargan, The Gentle Good’s wisdom of Welsh folksong and histories is both reverential and contemporary. Combined with his sensitive arrangements and deep, rich, haunting vocals, it is a beautifully accomplished and irresistibly engaging album.

Aptly described as ‘Ancient Northumbrian Futurism’, Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening’s ‘Cloud Horizons’ is an electrifying and incredibly captivating album. In capturing a sound that effortlessly conjures the past whilst simultaneously referencing the present and future, they have created a rather unique and striking soundscape.

With ‘I See A World’, the Peatbog Faeries have done it again – with infectious rhythms, sublime musicianship, a fine ear for experimentation, and a loving respect for Scots tradition, this is a rousing and breath-taking album – they sound as passionate, eager, and energised as they’ve ever been.

Rónán Ó Snodaigh & Myles O’Reilly’s ‘The Beautiful Road’, is a calmative, a sonic balm in times of literal and metaphorical noise, but also a reminder of the verve and the life that can still exist in music. It’s an exceptional feat.