Hirondelle: Hirondelle review – the Brothers Gillespie’s Franco-Scottish adventure

The Northumberland duo team up with Provençal trio Tant Que Li Siam and Trio Mythos for an elegant folk-classical journey

Molly Tuttle review – galloping bluegrass as fun as a campfire jam

The US singer-songwriter is a virtuoso guitarist – with a galvanising charm that electrifies her audience

Muireann Bradley: I Kept These Old Blues review – a playful take on American classics

The teenage Irish singer turned to her guitar during Covid, and this album of traditional blues tracks showcases her dexterity and elegance

Lankum review – more like an exorcism than a gig

The Dublin doom-folk favourites crown a momentous year with a magnificent assault on the senses and a set rich in hypnotic tales of woe

Soema Montenegro: Círculo Radiante review – an intoxicating journey around South American song

This fifth album by the Argentinian singer, poet and shaman is a passionate celebration of Latin music – and the sun

You Are Wolf: Hare // Hunter // Moth // Ghost review – bursting with spirit

With Sam Lee and Robert Macfarlane guesting, Kerry Andrew shows a knack for experimentation, deploying playground rhymes, birdsong and even their radiator

Harp: Albion review – former Midlake frontman traipses through twilight

Tim Smith’s first album with Kathi Zung takes inspiration from William Blake and the Cure to create a landscape of 80s reverb and ghostly vocals

John Francis Flynn: Look Over the Wall, See the Sky review – a blast of the past

Expect white noise and growling guitars as the Dublin folk singer follows his acclaimed debut with more boundary-pushing takes on tradition

An 80th Birthday Concert for Bert Jansch review – moving homage to 60s folk guitar hero

Pentangle’s Jacqui McShee as well as Robert Plant, Bernard Butler and Sam Lee were among stellar acts celebrating the late musician in impressive style

ØXN: CYRM review – Irish folk debut full of unsettling dark magic

Featuring grisly trad tales, striking vocals, two members of Lankum and shades of PJ Harvey, this is a compelling record from Claddagh’s first signing for nearly two decades

Billy Bragg: The Roaring Forty review – four decades of flying the flag

Austere, melodic, at times heartbreaking – the music of Britain’s foremost protest singer gets an evocative overview in this nuanced compilation

Maple Glider: I Get Into Trouble review – delicate songs of rage and religious trauma

The Melbourne singer-songwriter’s second album catalogues the aftershocks of her Christian upbringing – and moments of joy in between

Sufjan Stevens: Javelin review – US indie folk hero hits every target

The singer-songwriter’s 10th album fuses his acoustic and electronic impulses to stunning effect

Ward Knútur Townes: Unanswered review – a captivating English-Canadian-Icelandic union

Born out of lockdown, the affinity between singer-songwriters Lucy Ward, Adyn Townes and Svavar Knútur bears fruit on an album of alluring melancholy

Sally Anne Morgan: Carrying review – resonant songs about nature and motherhood

The North Carolinian’s poetic lyrics, blissful vocals and thrumming banjo and fiddle combine on an album full of warmth and feeling