Albums

While Moris Tepper’s life has taken directions far off the beaten path, his muse and music are legendary. Challenging and charming, Building A Nest marks a welcome return that adds to that legacy.

Sam Lee’s ‘Songdreaming’ pleases on so many levels, the significance of the stories told by the lyrics build in your mind while powerful arrangements do what music does best, evoking emotional response after emotional response.

Nobel Jacks frontman Will Page makes his solo debut album Still Standing featuring Cormac Byrne and Steve Knightley of Show of Hands. An impressive and, at times, inspirational album.

Never the Same Way Twice is a new album from The Memory Band, marking the twentieth anniversary of their debut EP. These previously unreleased recordings present a tantalising glimpse of two decades of hauntological and heartfelt collective excursions across the ancient and magical British landscape.

Dana Gavanski’s Late Slap is unlike anything else in her back catalogue. It appeals directly to the senses, every moment an invitation to immersion. A detailed and accomplished work, its fleshy and often complex sound never gets in the way of its inherently airy melodicism.

All My Friends is Aoife O’Donovan’s finest yet. Veined with intimate personal and political passion, it’s a timely, broader testament to the power of the community of women to bring about change.

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.