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Hedera: Hedera review – Cornwall, Georgia and Bali combine on joyful debut

The Bristol-based folk ensemble travel widely on their first album, exploring global influences with sparkling, springlike warmth

Hen Ogledd: Discombobulated review – a manifesto for collective action from Richard Dawson’s folk-rockers

Featuring taunts in Welsh, ‘bard rap’ and spirited jigs, the British quartet’s ragged, rich music underpins their vision for change

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi review – big, generous, provocative music-making on a small stage

Grammy-winning Giddens fused folk, opera, jazz, pop and classical elements in a recital ‘honouring composers who don’t often get called composers’

Leonkoro Quartet: Out of Vienna album review – a blazing exploration of Viennese modernism

The young quartet give a fiercely alert account of Berg, Webern and Schulhoff – beautifully capturing Vienna’s prewar musical fault lines

Earth and Other Planets review – reimagined Holst with harmonica and a hoedown

Left-field duo Stevens & Pound threaded funky folk stylings with poetry by Robert Macfarlane and virtuoso playing by Britten Sinfonia to create The Silent Planet, a rethinking of Holst’s Planets Suite, with the addition of the newly composed Earth

Tessa Rose Jackson: The Lighthouse review – grief, grace and memory in a luminous folk rebirth

Moving from dream pop to acoustic clarity, the Dutch-British songwriter delivers her most personal record yet where loss is transformed into something quietly powerful

Robert Plant’s Saving Grace review – self-effacing superstar still sounds astonishing

Playing a mix of traditional folk and radically rearranged acoustic Led Zeppelin classics, the former Zep frontman is in fine voice – but also happy to step out of the spotlight

Laura Cannell: Brightly Shone the Moon review – bleakness and beauty in a haunting carol collection

The violinist sets out on her darkest exploration of yuletide yet, giving a murky and melancholy twist on familiar Christmas standards

Sara Ajnnak and the Ciderhouse Rebellion: Landscapes of the Spirit, Parts 1-4 review – elemental power, eerie beauty

The Ume Sámi vocalist and British folk duo complete their four-part cycle with a dark, dazzling finale that blends ancient song with fearless improvisation

Paul Kelly: Seventy review – reflections on ageing from a musician bigger than ever

After five decades, the songs are still memorable, warm and a little sex-mad. It’s classic Kelly – and Joe’s back, too

Širom: In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper review – a cacophonous folk kaleidoscope

The Slovenian trio conjure strange beauty from a vast arsenal of global instruments on an album that hums, drones and dances with intense power

Hannah Frances: Nested in Tangles review – ramshackle arrangements power restless revelations

Wayward tempos and snapping drums break fresh ground in this unruly release from the Vermont musician

Cerys Hafana: Angel review – tracing the life cycle with the Welsh triple harp

On their third release in 18 months, this exceptional musician draws from folk story, Breton influences and nature to explore the sublime potential of its title

Patrick Wolf review – a moon-lit marvel lights up the Minack theatre

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of his album Wind in the Wires in the Cornish landscape that inspired it, Wolf claims his status as a goth-folk pioneer

Big Thief: Double Infinity review – folk-rock perfection will restore your faith in humanity

Classic melodies, spring water acoustics and pared-back poeticism about living in the moment fill Adrianne Lenker and co’s latest with life

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  • Siegfried review – invigorating and mesmerising staging, with Schager outstanding as Wagner’s hero
  • Wu-Tang Clan review – still bringing the ruckus even on their farewell tour
  • The Kingdom: Oxford Bach Choir, BSO/Nicholas review – Elgar’s unloved oratorio sounds expansive and convincing
  • Sinfonia of London/ Wilson/ Kantorow review – pushing the limits of the well-oiled orchestral machine
  • BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Oramo/ Son review – rainy days, rolling hills and enchanted creatures
  • BBCNOW/Djupsjöbacka review – Tower’s Love Returns is an uncommonly appealing piece
  • Hallé/Chauhan/Helseth review – Muhly paints doom with Helseth’s gleaming trumpet
  • Elisabeth Leonskaja review – piano legend’s unerring sense of architecture reveals connections and kinships
  • Diagonale des Yeux: Madeleine review – wacky multilingual outsider pop with winning quieter moments
  • James Blake: Trying Times review – platitudes about politics and Kanye can’t detract from an excellent album
  • Joseph Nolan: The Complete Alkan Organ Works, Vol 1 album review – seething with quasi-orchestral colour
  • Nemanja Radulović: Prokofiev album review – thrills and spills from a fearless violin virtuoso
  • Philharmonia/Alsop/Weilerstein review – tricky acoustic mutes the sonic drama
  • The Black Crowes: A Pound of Feathers review – pathos and profanity elevate peerless rock’n’roll pastiche
  • Monteverdi Choir/English Baroque Soloists/Whelan review – St John Passion of drama and authority
  • Golden Plains 2026 review – Basement Jaxx turn a regional farm into a surreal and heaving club
  • Echo and the Bunnymen review – Ian McCulloch leaves it to the crowd to sing these timelessly great songs
  • Harry Styles review – Netflix concert is a communal love-in with some big pop moments
  • LSO/Hannigan review – intensely fluent soprano switches into full command as conductor
  • Morrissey: Make-Up Is a Lie review – nostalgic, sentimental and dull, he is a shadow of what he once was
  • Feshareki/BBC Singers/Goddard review – goddess-inspired soundscape stuck in the great unknown
  • Hallé: Huw Watkins album review – Covid-era commissions capture energy and hope after lockdown
  • Simo Cell and Abdullah Miniawy: Dying Is the Internet review – a virtuosic voice cuts through digital noise
  • Waterbaby: Memory Be a Blade review – stellar singer-songwriter pieces post-breakup life back together
  • Mitski review – pop meets performance art in a masterful spectacle
  • Squeeze: Trixies review – finally completed first album proves teenage dreams are hard to beat
  • Lise Davidsen and James Baillieu: Live at the Met album review – electrifying renditions make the momentous intimate
  • 10cc review – 70s legends reprise a dazzling string of pop classics
  • Dave review – prodigiously skilled rapper conjures thrilling intimacy on a grand scale
  • Harry Styles: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally review – nice all the time. Good, occasionally

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