10. Peiriant – Dychwelyd
With Welsh traditional music flourishing in experimental arrangements and settings thanks to artists such as Cerys Hafana and Lleuwen, Peiriant’s second album (its title means returning) adds to that thrilling sense of motion. Rose Linn-Pearl’s folk fiddle melodies twist and lock with the post-rock-influenced guitars and drones, played by her bandmate and husband, Dan, conjuring up the sublime, jagged landscapes of their home in the Bannau Brycheiniog of mid-Wales. Mellifluous tracks like Llethr (Slope) and Cân Idris (Idris’s Song) sit side-by-side with the compelling, twitchy textures of Gors (Swamp) and Carreg (Stone). Read the full review
9. Elijah Minnelli – Perpetual Musket
A brilliant collection of traditional folk covers through the lens of dub reggae put together by the Soho Radio DJ, label boss and producer. The splicing of genres feels seamless, joyful and briskly contemporary. Little Roy’s delivery of Jewish traditional song Vine and Fig Tree, starts proceedings full of hope (“Nations shall learn war no more”) while Earl 16’s gorgeous rendition of Lifeboat Mona (written by Peggy Seeger about a 1959 capsizing that led to the loss of the vessel’s crew) reminds us of the horrors in today’s English Channel. Accordions, reedy processed sounds, and hints of raga on Wind and The Rain are also fabulous when played loud.
8. Jacken Elswyth – At Fargrounds
A central cog in London’s impressive Shovel Dance Collective, instrument-maker and banjo player Jacken Elswyth continues to push the boundaries of her instrument on her third LP. Tracks such as Singing Birds/Jack Lattin and Sussex Waltz build compellingly, full of warmth and rigour, while Coffin Maker and A Fisherman’s Song for Attracting Seals/Full Rigged Ship add drones, double bass and violin to the mix, sculpting cinematic mini-epics from these base elements. Shuddering, scraping moments of terror also yank the ear – brave yourself for the entirety of the terrifying Who Remembers.
7. West of Roan – Queen of Eyes
Annie Schermer and Channing Showalter’s voices are stunning portals into their second album together as a duo, which explores the connections between legends, myths and folktales from northern and eastern Europe and the Middle East. Recorded on an ear trumpet condenser microphone in an island cabin off Washington state, it is a movingly intimate 13-track set, an invitation to embrace the intensity of life, love, death and nature in enthralling ways. “The dead have lain beneath this ground,” they sing on Bread of Life with a grounding grace, “and they gather us in as we gather all ’round”.
6. Róis – Mo Léan
This nine-track debut, delving into the pre-Christian Irish tradition of grieving songs known as caoineadh (keening), shows us a young artist’s arresting engagement with the intensity of emotions surrounding loss. Rose Connolly has a beautiful voice with a wide melodic range, which she bends, twists, strains and warps through both her physical exertions and a sample-based granular synthesiser. The results recall both the Gaelic tradition of séan-nos singing, and the work of experimental artists such as Meredith Monk, Yoko Ono and Hatis Noit, while the beats meld folk with gothic, 4AD-era soundscapes unmatched since the glory days of This Mortal Coil. Read the full review
5. Merope – Vėjula
A tonic for our troubled times, Merope’s fifth album offers total immersion into a realm of skittering Lithuanian folk forms and spectral voices, where analogue and electronic instruments come together to sound like harmonious family members. Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė sings and plays the kanklės (a Baltic box zither played in Lithuania since the 15th century) with a mesmerising power, especially on traditional tracks like Lopšinė, while Belgian multi-instrumentalist Bert Cools adds soft shades of sound that evoke of finer details of the natural world. Ambient master Laraaji, composer Shahzad Ismaily, and American jazz guitarist Bill Frisell guest, but never overwhelm.
4. Fran & Flora – Precious Collection
Stroud’s festival of new music Hidden Notes has done much to connect exciting music across genres, and its release of cellist Francesca Ter-Berg and fiddler Flora Curzon’s second album this year marks another high point. Popular Russian songs, Greek folk and many tunes and techniques from Yiddish and Klezmer sources carry us with verve through the 12 tracks. They range from the giddy spirit of the breakneck Kick Up in 9, to the sensual sweetness of Nign (Tune), to Sholem Aleichem’s beautiful finale (named after a Yiddish greeting, “peace upon you”). Ter-Berg and Curzon’s playing and singing throughout is exceptional. Read the full review
3. Mali Obomsawin and Jake Blount – Symbiont
What constitutes “folk” is a constantly frustrating critical dilemma, but Obomsawin and Blount’s fusion of past and present music gives us many thrilling ideas for its future direction. A concept album about global collapse triggered by centuries of colonialism, Symbiont’s source materials include beautifully sung spirituals, shape note hymns and Caribbean banjo tunes. Set against synthesisers and sound-processing techniques, this lets the artists powerfully remix their ancestors. A significant new release for the Smithsonian Folkways canon, it also features Ojibwe singer Joe Rainey and Malian drummer Sidy Maiga among the supporting players.
2. The Rheingans Sisters – Start Close In
From the opening attack of Devils – a full-throttle take on Frankie Armstrong’s 1978 version of the ballad The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife, in which the female protagonist fights back when she is taken to hell – it’s clear that the Rheingans Sisters have made their boldest album yet. Their material is enthusiastically gathered from Québécois, Occitan and Swedish sources, and its delivery inspired by the siblings’ visceral engagement with live performance, creating a fiery spirit for which producer Adam Pietrykowski (also a composer and progressive metal artist) allows ample room. Moments of reflection also smoulder vividly too, both in the Pyrenean song Un Voltigeur, lifted by shimmers of violin and saxophone, and the beautifully brittle bowed passages of closing track, Purcell’s. Read the full review
1. Landless – Lúireach
Sometimes the human voice is all you need, communicating something essential about our drive to exist together as a species, to sound our internal worlds in union, at volume. Named after an Irish term for a cloak for protection, a breastplate and a hymn, this Irish quartet’s second album is incredibly simple on paper: a collection of 10 songs about bold women featuring four exceptional female singers (Méabh Meir, Lily Power, Ruth Clinton and Sinéad Lynch). But these interpretations of songs such as The Newry Highwayman, Blackwaterside and Death and the Lady, produced by John “Spud” Murphy (who also produces Lankum), are astonishingly mighty and moving. Occasional, minimal accompaniment by pipe organ, clavichord, shruti box and strings only lifts the weight of their harmonies higher. Read the full review
