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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.

We revisit Alasdair Roberts and Robin Robertson’s ‘Hirta Songs’, inspired by the people, landscape and history of the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda. The album also featured Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band and Scottish harpist Corrina Hewat.

Haar might be Lauren MacColl’s most accomplished and rewarding work to date, an ambitious album of painterly beauty, on which the sadness of experience is offset by the constant awareness of the world’s wonders and complexities.  

On ‘Land’, an immersive album of depth and subtlety, Liz Hanks helps us understand how a place changes over time. She reads her surroundings like a vast physical palimpsest, peeling away roads and buildings to examine the earthy underbelly, the strata of human activity and natural change.

The music across the twelve tracks of Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay is diverse and dynamic, ebbing and flowing like a river, evoking nature and the outdoors wonderfully. Assured in its composition and immaculate in its execution, this one is a must.

Damir Imamović’s latest album, The World and all that it Holds, is a beautiful, crystal clear, unpretentious and direct offering. Produced by Joe Boyd and released on Folkways, it is a triumph and delight on so many levels and is performed with the utmost skill and soul.

Gnoss’s ‘Stretching Skyward’ is an exciting and invigorating album. Alongside an intoxicating fusion of instruments, there is a well-earned quiet confidence on show, with a soft, subtle touch of Americana filtering through the band’s more traditional Scottish sound; it’s an innovative, accomplished meld.

It may have taken a while, but with ‘We Are Only Sound’, Lucy Farrell has given us a bold debut album of rare sophistication, and a moving document of an emotional few years.

Amelia Baker, the singer, musician and writer behind Cinder Well, is disarmingly honest. But behind that honesty lies an intriguing depth and complexity. We chat with her about her new album ‘Cadence’; her Southern California roots and living in Ireland; and her influences and tastes, from Joni Mitchell to Lankum and Haruki Murakami.

For their latest album Sølvstrøk, Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola created a Chamber Orchestra, adding another dimension to their sound while maintaining the duo’s integrity. It is music that is as wonderfully performed as it is confident and generous; another masterpiece.

Cinder Well’s ‘Cadence’ is something of a journey. Meandering, non-linear, but full of care and wisdom, it is an astonishingly powerful piece of work that seems to have been conceived in uncertainty but realised with the supreme assurance of one of the most consummate songwriters around.

One thing that keeps Dom Flemons engaged and inspired is his indelible belief in the magic and wonder of music. It is that spirit which rises to the fore so definitively on ‘Traveling Wildfire’, a deep and indispensable album.