Lovely. Classical songs by such exemplars as Schubert and Schumann, re-imagined with heart and soul as bare, doleful folk. Just voice and electric guitar.

Terrific — lit-up, reaching and odd — Josephine playing harp, guitar and piano (and singing), with Alex Nielson on drums and Victor Herrero, lead guitar.

Patti Smithed. ‘Lyrically, stylistically and musically, this is a fearless, soon to be classic post-punk rock and roll record that delivers the goods from start to finish.’

Settings of the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Intimate four-track home recordings from 2001. After years of just writing songs down, without thinking of recording them, the spur was her work as a music teacher to young children.

JF goes to Nashville — a home from home for her song-writing, its odd allure, sex and sorrow lit up by harp and pedal steel, double bass and piano.

‘A maze of spirituals, on four levels. Ritual prayers, blues laments, vestal hymns and jubilant benedictions hearkening back to the esoteric balladry of This Coming Gladness, the native rhythms of Blood Rushing, the somnambulist waltzes of I’m A Dreamer, and the Shaker primitivism of Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You. Self-accompaniment on guitar, piano, organ, harp and autoharp, with Victor Herrero (lead guitars), Gyða Valtýsdóttir (cello), Chris Scruggs (pedal steel) and Jon Estes (bass), as well as cameos by members of The Cherry Blossoms and others.’
Clear vinyl.

Curator James Blackshaw brings together Espers’ Swedish cellist Helena Espvall, koto virtuoso Chieko Mori, Dutch lute player Josef Van Wissem — along with a track from Blackshaw himself.

Fragile, dignified performances by two of Cajun music’s finest and most unusual artists, originally released on 78 in the late 1920s. French vocals accompanied by guitar or fiddle, or sometimes both. Impeccable ballads and breakdowns. Old school tip-on cover.

‘A startling twist on English folk revivalism. Dynamic and earthy, surreal and dreamlike, lean and direct; cavernously introspective and vividly pastoral. Playful, intricate, story-telling songs, with guitar, violin, and hand-percussion accompaniment. Check it out if you like Davy Graham, The Godz, Smelly Feet, Martin Carthy…’

‘Ghost musick… operating in the margins and intersections of folklore, experimental electronics, dreams and nightmares… Think of it as a rampant yearning, a manic laughter, but mostly as a feeling of some somnambulistic thirst for adventure and journeys into the unknown, a feeling that is grounded deep inside the heart of the continent.’

‘Shines a light on a little-heard, spooked German underground, working below the radar on mostly small-run releases. Lower Franconia’s Baldruin lays the mystery on thick, his fevered tracks here using flutes, electric organs and shaken children’s toys to create an opaque ambience. Close neighbours Brannten Schnüre voyage into similarly uncharted territory, providing laceworks of fragile folk melodies and sloshes of breathy drone offset by detached vocals. Like Brothers Grimm armed with analogue synths, Freundliche Kreisel supply the title track’s sinister fairy tale, while the oblique textures of Kirschstein’s mystically-themed efforts betray roots in Amon Düül’s hallucinogenic psychedelia and Novy Svet’s neo surrealism. A very dark delight’ (Mojo).

With Arthur Russell, Bob Dylan, Anne Waldman, Perry Robinson, David Amram and co, having a whale of a time in sessions which sound like the best kind of parties, between 1971 and 1981.
‘Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs. Chanteys, Come-All-Ye’s, Aborigine Song Sticks. Gospel, Improvisations, Renaissance Lyrics, Blake Hymns, Bluegrass, Hillbilly Riffs, Country & Western, 50’s R&B, Dirty Dozens & New Wave.’
The first-ever full vinyl reissue; gatefold sleeve. Photography by Robert Frank!