Friday, April 9, 2021
Best New Albums – May 2021 (Ballaké Sissoko, Peggy Seeger, Piers Faccini, Jon Boden)
Outstanding new releases from Frente Cumbiero, Ballaké Sissoko, Peggy Seeger, Piers Faccini, Jon Boden, Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola and more. Tracks from all of these albums are included on the free cover-CD with the May 2021 issue of Songlines
★
Frente Cumbiero
Cera Perdida
Salgaelsol & Biche
Explosive opener ‘La Era del GigaHertz’ starts as the album means to go on, careering through psychedelic synth soundscapes like a runaway juggernaut... Jane Cornwell
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Piers Faccini
Shapes of the Fall
Nø Førmat!/Beating Drum
Based in France, but of British and Italian extraction, Faccini operates broadly in Tim Buckley/Nick Drake acoustic folk territory, singing in a honeyed voice over delicate finger-picking. But that only tells half the story – not least because Faccini’s instrument is, in fact, a fretless guitar-oud hybrid made by French luthier Michel Cassan... Nigel Williamson
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola
The Smoky Smirr o Rain
Eighth Nerve Audio
Their music-making is so intuitive; they breathe as one as they send a gentle melody on its way through Baroque ornamentation, desert vibes, a subtle mid-West swagger, a blush of jazz, a mischievous reel, a wrong-footing polska... Fiona Talkington
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Rhiannon Giddens
They're Calling Me Home
Nonesuch
Rhiannon Giddens is incapable of producing an album that is not simultaneously a fascinating musical education and deeply enjoyable listening experience... Doug Deloach
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Ballaké Sissoko
Djourou
Nø Førmat!
There’s much to love here: ‘Guelen’ finds the allegedly retired Salif Keita quivering mightily over kora notes placed just so; kora player Sona Jobarteh proves a fine sparring partner on ‘Djourou’; ‘Kadidja’, a slow-paced song featuring the pure, breathy vocals of label-mate Piers Faccini, is utterly lovely... Jane Cornwell
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Jon Boden
Last Mile Home
Hudson Records
The final entry in Boden’s ‘post-oil’ trilogy is an acoustic and spare iteration of his apocalyptic themes, set against the emptying out of our everyday lives by pandemic and economic and cultural shutdown... Tim Cumming
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Nuri
IRUN
Shouka
IRUN is anchored in the sensory experiences of stambeli, the Tunisian variety of Gnawa music, but it looks even further outward, drawing from indigenous styles across the African continent as part of a multilayered compositional approach that never sits still... Alex De Lacey
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Tirana-Tirona Allstars
Tirana 100
Municipality of Tirana
Here is an album of strikingly beautiful Albanian music that truly is a well-kept secret, barely known to the world beyond... Kim Burton
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Peggy Seeger
First Farewell
Red Grape Records
This is a remarkable album by a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist and writer who grows more impressive as the years go by... Robin Denselow
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
★
Hossein Alizadeh & the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio
Same Self, Same Silence
Just Listen Records
The Rembrandt Frerichs Trio released a magnificent album with Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor last year. But I think this new one with Hossein Alizadeh is even better – largely because there’s more variety across the nine tracks... Simon Broughton
Read the review in the Songlines Reviews Database
