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Lydia Ainsworth –‘White Shadows’
An orchestral xylophone and electronic-assisted song from the Brooklyn/Toronto composer.Lydia Ainsworth has spent much of recent history composing music for film, art installations and contemporary...
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Premiere: Carriages –‘Roots’
Having impressed at Hard Working Class Heroes last year with their experimental off-filter folk and electronic songs, Carriages, the duo of Harry Bookless and Aaron Page have built up a reputation...
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Seafret –‘Give Me Something’
Coming on like a male-fronted cover version of Daughter, ‘Give Me Something’ is a gentle folk song from the Yorkshire duo Seafret. It swells into its chorus from finger-picked guitar and subtle...
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Sam Amidon –‘Walkin’ Boss’
Vermont’s Sam Amidon is one of the few American folk singers who equally at home delving into rich archive of folk music whether the song is of Appalachian origin or first sung in Derry. Lily-O, like...
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Damien Rice returns with first bit of new music in 8 years on ‘My Favourite...
Here’s something a lot of people have been waiting for.My Favourite Faded Fantasy is Damien Rice’s first album in 8 years and it will be released October 31st. It was produced by none other than Rick...
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SOAK –‘B A noBody’
Young Bridie Monds-Watson is now 18 but she’s been on our radar over three years already. However, this year she signed to Rough Trade so expect a lot of people to start to take more notice, especially...
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Rhob Cunningham –‘Quiet Song’
Rhob Cunningham’s 11-minute song ‘The Head Collector’ which features Cathy Davey and Conor O’Brien is a rush but naturally, due to its standalone nature, it does not feature on his new album The Window...
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Slow Skies –‘Bodies’
For their new EP, entitled Keepsake, Slow Skies (Karen Sheridan & Conal Herron) have amped up the atmosphere between the notes and words, moving their sound into more dynamic and effective places.A...
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Jennifer Evans to release her debut album in November, hear new single...
Jennifer Evans has been an artist to watch for three or four years now but no rush is recommended in diving headfirst into a debut album, it may have seemed like it was around the corner, any day now....
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Gaze Is Ghost –‘Revolvere’ / ‘Murmuration’
I’ve been keeping tabs on Derry-born Laura McGarrigle. Her atmospheric orchestral songs as Gaze Is Ghost made with piano, violin, guitar and McGarrigle’s delicately emotional voice have meant that I’ve...
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Silences –‘Sister Snow’
Silences were one of my picks of the recent Hard Working Class Heroes lineup and the Armagh band have a new single and EP out. The band’s folk-leaning harmonic music is pleasing in its execution and...
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First listen: Adrian Crowley’s new album Some Blue Morning
The Galway singer and musician Adrian Crowley has made a name for himself for creating music of his own soundscapes. Across six albums, his music has moved from folk to gentle rock to singer-songwriter...
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Listen to charity Christmas songs by Lisa Hannigan and The Lost Brothers
Lisa Hannigan has teamed up with An Postto raise funds for the Dublin Simon Community via Lisa singing a cover of ‘The Christmas Waltz’ as sung by Frank Sinatra in 1954. The song is featured on the ad...
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Knoxville Morning –‘Bridget’
The Newbridge band Knoxville Morning lead by Ciaran Dwyer, released an album in 2012 inspired by a road trip in the U.S. The band have been touring in Europe since, in Germany and Holland most...
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Marika Hackman –‘Animal Fear’
The English folk singer Marika Hackman has shown she has a way with folk textures that places her in a similar sonic space to her collaborators Alt-J (she appears on their new album, shares a producer...
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Hear a new version of SOAK’s ‘Sea Creatures’
Over two years on from the first time we heard SOAK aka Bridie Monds-Watson sing ‘Sea Creatures’ as a 16-year old Derry pup on Other Voices, the song remains one of her best. As she has progressed as a...
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Album of the week: Jonnie Common – Trapped In Amber
A jovial intro track called ‘Guesty’, in which Johnnie Common offers to put his mate on the guestlist for a free gig sets the mood for the Glasgow musician’s second solo record.Throughout Trapped In...
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Villagers announces new album Darling Arithmetic, hear first song ‘Courage’
Villagers have a third entitled Darling Arithmetic coming out on April 10th on Domino Records.The followup to {Awayland} is billed as an “intimate album entirely about love and relationships.”It was...
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Sufjan Stevens –‘No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross’
Sufjan Stevens’ seventh album called Carrie & Lowell due on March 27th. The album is named after his mother and stepfather and addresses his mother’s death in 2012. It strips back his sound to...
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Cal Folger Day – Adornament EP
With a background conducting orchestras and hosting open mic nights New York’s Lower East Side, Cal Folger Day is not your typical American transplant to Dublin.Her latest solo release, the Adornament...
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First listen: Inni-K – The King Has Two Horse’s Ears
If the title gives us a clue about anything about the music of Inni-K beyond specifics, it’s that Eithne Ní Chatháin’s debut album is rooted in the traditional and the mythic. The name, which informs...
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Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail –‘The Colour Blue’
Quet Arch is a new label from the people behind Champion Sound Recordings for non-electronic releases and the first propler release on the label is an intriguing one as it pairs two of Northern...
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SignA – ‘Lines’
Stefano Schiavocampo and Massimiliano Galli are two Italian lads who are based in Dublin who, like Buffalo Woman, are part of the creative types that work in The Fumbally Café.Their band SignA,...
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Villagers detail a breakup on new song ‘Hot Scary Summer’
Last year, Villagers released ‘Occupy Your Mind’, a song which addressed the Russian laws against anyone who just happened to be homosexual.‘Hot Scary Summer’, the second song from Darling Arithmetic,...
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Sufjan Stevens –‘Should Have Known Better’
Last night, a select Dublin audience got a full headphones listen to Sufjan’s new album Carrie & Lowell (March 27th), an album that addresses his mother’s death and which pats down his sonics to...
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Album of the week: Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
The Sufjan Stevens that affected me the most was the one that revelled in the quiet, who kept things simple. Illinoise and The Age Of Adz are great records, sonically rich and ambitious. His stature...
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Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail –‘Nick Cave’s Band’
Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail’s joint EP as Sea Legs on new NI label Quiet Arch takes field recordings from the Donegal coast and weaves them into a tapestry of meditative folk and electronic...
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Silences –‘The Sea’
The Armagh band Silences were a recent pick at last year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival. Their lilting folk song ‘Sister Snow’ was my way in. Conchúr White, Christopher Harbinson, Breándan White,...
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Jealous of the Birds –‘Goji Berry Sunset’
Rarely a month goes by in which I don’t receive some Northern Irish music gem from BBC NI Across The Line’s keen team. I contribute to the show once a month and last night, new co-presenter Stuart...
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Listen to SOAK cover St. Vincent’s ‘Digital Witness’
Bridie Monds-Watson was asked by Rookie Magazine to cover St. Vincent which she did in her own inimitable way and they interviewed her about it and her music as part of it:So much of that song, and...
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Arborist –‘Twisted Arrow’ (Feat. Kim Deal)
‘Twisted Arrow’, the new song from Belfast singer-songwriter Arborist, only has Kim Deal (formerly of Pixies, The Breeders) on backing vocals. Mark McCambridge just chanced his arm emailing one of his...
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Intro: Overcoats – melodic ambient pop folk
Overcoats are a New York-based duo who describe their music as “electro-folk-soul”, an accurate descriptor for their melodic ambient pop folk songs so far (that’s mine).The two 21 year olds, Hana Elion...
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Hear Mongoose’s cover of Phil Lynott’s ‘Old Town’
Dublin jazz folk foursome Mongoose are one of 14 bands who have recorded a cover for Sound Training College and KnockanStockan’s charity album Growing Home, all proceeds for which will go towards the...
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Intro: Jake Houlsby – calming Newcastle singer-songwriter
I’ve been supremely calmed by the music of Newcastle singer-songwriter Jake Houlsby, who formerly called himself Suntrapp. His most recent tracks have had a reflective and harmonic effect that eases...
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Hear Sea Legs cover SOAK’s ‘Sea Creatures’
As they did with Leo Drezden, Smalltown America hosted a performance from Sea Legs, Ciaran Lavery and Ryan Vail’s project that produced a short EP which evokes and is inspired by the Donegal coast.As...
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Overcoats –‘Smaller Than My Mother’
I introduced you to the melodic ambient pop folk New York duo Overcoats recently through their excellent track ‘The Fog’.Just this week, Hana Elion & JJ Mitchell moved to Dublin for the summer,...
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Check out this lilting live performance from Dublin’s Saint Sister
Hailing from Belfast and Derry but based in Dublin, Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre’s project Saint Sister (formerly O Sister) has supported San Fermin, Spies and Will Butler lately and it’s easy to...
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I Have A Tribe –‘Scandinavia’
Patrick O’Laoghaire, I Have A Tribe, has returned with a new track to follow up his debut EP from last year.‘Scandinavia’ feels like a song that’s been revealed as written in a letter, a confessional...
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Overcoats –‘Little Memory’
Overcoats are a talented New York duo currently living in Dublin for the summer who have made a small splash with their harmony-driven minimal ambient folk music with gigs at Ruby Sessions and...
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Rosa Nutty –‘Fine Print’
The Dublin-based singer-songwriter Rosa Nutty recently successfully completed a Kickstarter for her debut EP Bunny, but I’d wager with more ears on the young singer’s songs, there won’t be a need to...
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