Various artists: Asili ya Mama review – Tanzanian field recordings tell women’s stories with an energetic trill

These stories of family bonds capture traditional music that’s equal parts rhythmic, melodic and harmonic, and rarely heard outside Indigenous communities

Huw Marc Bennett: Heol Las review – exhilarating Welsh folk injected with synths, sitars and surf rock

The multi-instrumentalist puts his magical spin on traditional Glamorgan tunes, fusing the past, present and future in a momentous third album

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’

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