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Review of Songs for the Trees

Songs for the Trees

Kate Daisy Grant & Nick Pynn

Kate Daisy Grant

Rating: ★★★★

A rich and deeply mytho-poetic set of 13 songs drawing on Ogham (the Druidic ‘tree alphabet’) and evoking some of...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: July/2025

Review of Barĩy (Fera) برٌِي

Barĩy (Fera) برٌِي

Maurice Louca

Top of the World

Simsara Records

Rating: ★★★★

Egyptian guitarist Maurice Louca’s music has shapeshifted continually across the years. Rooted in Arabic music, he’s refracted its traditions in...

Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: July/2025

Review of Counterclockwise

Counterclockwise

Faun Fables

Drag City Records

Rating: ★★★★

Long-running Californian folkers Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl have delivered an epic and ambitious slice of weird Wicca folk with...

Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: August/2025

Review of Traditional Irish Music Played on the 5-String & Tenor Banjos

Traditional Irish Music Played on the 5-String & Tenor Banjos

Luke Coffey & Patrick ‘Paahto’ Cummins

Luke Coffey & Patrick ‘Paahto’ Cummings

Rating: ★★★★

Right from the get-go on the opening set of reels (‘George White’s/Carracastle Lass’), there’s a lovely swing and lift to...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: August/2025

Review of Trespass

Trespass

Alex Roberts

Mottow Soundz

Rating: ★★★★

“Alex plays bloody wonderfully,” said the late great John Renbourn, of Pentangle fame, and here’s a new set that proves...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: August/2025

Review of An 424

An 424

Trá Pháidín

Hive Mind

Rating: ★★★★

Imagine an amalgam of traditional Irish folk, post-rock, jazz and the disruptive spirit of Dada, stir provocatively with nine musicians...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: August/2025

Review of In a Sea of Stars

In a Sea of Stars

Zoë Aqua

Top of the World

Adhyâropa Records

Rating: ★★★★★

It’s gutsy to start off a live fiddle album with a ten-minute absolute barn-burner suite, but klezmer fiddler Zoë Aqua...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue: August/2025

Review of Swar Lahari

Swar Lahari

Avra Banerjee

Avra Banerjee

Rating: ★★★

Composer Avra Banerjee’s latest album draws, as is characteristic of his work, predominantly on his South Asian roots, but with...

Reviewed by Maria Lord in issue: August/2025

Review of La Giostra

La Giostra

Kërkim

Liburia Records

Rating: ★★★

Kërkim (Albanian for ‘Research’) is an Apulian five-piece outfit augmented with a few guests. The result might be wrongly filed...

Reviewed by Ciro De Rosa in issue: March/2021

Review of Instar

Instar

Nancy Kerr

Little Dish Records

Rating: ★★★★

Ecology, politics, and the rigours and inequities of the present framed by the struggles and injustices of the past are...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: November/2016

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