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Review of Un Éloge d’Oblique: Confluence #1.2.3

Un Éloge d’Oblique: Confluence #1.2.3

Isabelle Courroy

Buda Musique

Rating: ★★★★

Constantly exploring and expanding the boundaries of her instrument, French kaval player Isabelle Courroy presents here a three-part album (which...

Reviewed by Tom Newell in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Looking for the Thread

Looking for the Thread

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis & Karine Polwart

Thirty Tigers

Rating: ★★★★

This unexpected but very welcome silver lining collection first came together as a pandemic lockdown writing experiment. US singer-songwriter Carpenter...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: February/March/2025

Review of Bayou Moonlight

Bayou Moonlight

Jeffery Broussard & The Nighttime Syndicate

Fairgrounds Records

Rating: ★★★★

From the second that Bayou Moonlight’s opening track, ‘Whatever’, hits you, it’s readily apparent that you’re in for a wild,...

Reviewed by Andrew Daly in issue: July/2025

Review of Dancing the Line

Dancing the Line

Ultan O’Brien

Top of the World

Nyahh Records

Rating: ★★★★★

Ultan O’Brien is a fiddler and composer hailing from County Clare in West Ireland with an interest in both the...

Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: July/2025

Review of Swilkie

Swilkie

Iona Lane

Iona Lane

Rating: ★★

The Swilkie is a dangerous whirlpool between Orkney and the Scottish mainland. It’s where, according to Icelandic legend, the salt...

Reviewed by Julian May in issue: July/2025

Review of fygame

fygame

Thanos Stavridis & Drom

Thanos Stavridis

Rating: ★★★★

Cultural borders are a lot older, and more cloudy, than geo-political, linguistic and ethnic borders, and this recording demonstrates that...

Reviewed by Kim Burton in issue: July/2025

Review of So Kono

So Kono

Salif Keita

Nø Førmat!

Rating: ★★★★

Salif Keita was supposed to have stopped recording. The singer-songwriter, nicknamed the ‘African Caruso’ and the ‘Golden Voice of Mali’,...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: May/2025

Review of XOLO

XOLO

XIXA

Jullian Records

Rating: ★★★

Hailing from Tucson, Arizona, Brian López and Gabriel Sullivan make up XIXA, a band which sounds like a rocked-up version...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: May/2025

Review of Nordic Reflections

Nordic Reflections

Maimu Jõgeda

Maimu Jõgeda

Rating: ★★★

Maimu Jõgeda is an Estonian now living in Helsinki, and Nordic Reflections is her third album. It features nine original...

Reviewed by Tony Gillam in issue: May/2025

Review of A Blade Because a Blade is Whole

A Blade Because a Blade is Whole

Alabaster DePlume

International Anthem

Rating: ★★★★

Emerging from the UK’s experimental underground, DePlume’s Spotify statistics indicate that his concoction of poetry and jazz provides a taste...

Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: May/2025

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