10. Spafford Campbell – Tomorrow Held
Inspired by Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden and the quivering soundscapes of early Bon Iver, Tomorrow Held is the beautiful second album by fiddler Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell, their first on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. Mingling traditional tunes with influences from minimalism, post-rock and jazz, they shift moods exquisitely: from the reflectiveness of 26, a track in which drumbeats echo in the distance like heartbeats, to the trip-hop-like grooves of All Your Tiny Bones and the feverish panic of the full-throttle final track, Four.
9. Benedicte Maurseth – Mirra
Maurseth wasn’t the only musician inspired by the reindeer-hunting peoples of Scandinavia this year: Sara Ajnnak and the Ciderhouse Rebellion’s Landscape of the Spirits also plumbed this icy soil well. Here, hardanger fiddle player Maurseth sets out to translate the theory of ecosophy, a philosophy of ecological harmony, into sound. She does so in fascinating ways, blending her instrument’s drones and plucked notes with field recordings of the calls and movements of animals and birds, and their resonant approximations on her band’s bass guitar, electronics and piano. Particularly powerful are Kalven Reiser Seg (The Calf Rises), about a newborn deer, and Jaktmarsj (Hunting March). Read the full review
8. Jennifer Reid – The Ballad of the Gatekeeper
A Lancashire dialect singer and dogged researcher of workers’ songs, Reid’s voice is like her approach to folk – filled with beauty in its boldness. Her debut album mixes direct a cappellas with songs accompanied by soft percussion, layered harmonies, and birdsong, giving old stories like Spinning Shoddy and Poor Little Factory Girls a powerful new impact. She also mixes in striking political originals like When the Rivers Rise, So Must We, about bankers “dividing up land that is destined to perish”, and Conversa, which connects “factory and call centre cousins through time”.
7. Zoé Basha – Gamble
Basha’s bluesy tones arrive like ghosts from the early days of radio, but she also manages to handle traditional ballads, such as Three Little Babes and Love Is Teasin’, with a sharp freshness. The debut album by this French-American based in Dublin positions folk material on the same sweet platform as country songs such as Sweet Papa Hurry Home and originals dusted with influences from ragtime and chanson. Her intricate accompaniments, from nyckelharper to Spanish guitar and synths swirling in sub-bass on What Dream Is This, herald a refreshing new talent. Read the full review
6. Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver – Hinterland
Knapp has long been an exciting folk singer and interpreter, with a range that’s open-hearted and wild, and her husband, Gerry Diver, is an innovative producer working with ease across folk, pop, film and TV. The couple’s first officially collaborative album includes a brilliant, cinematic rendition of the murder ballad Long Lankin and a moving, fragile rush through the emotions of Irish ballad Lass of Aughrim. Knapp’s spry facility with the fiddle in Monaghan Jig/Monks Jig Set also impresses, as does her spoken-word delivery of travelling snapshots in Train Song. Read the full review
5. Malmin – Med Åshild Vetrhus
These bright, rugged settings of Norwegian dances, psalms and ballads, sourced from early to mid-20th-century recordings, are not for those who like their folk polished and cosy. Hardanger fiddles gnash and shiver away while microtonal mandolins and guitars discover the gnarly, wonderful hinterlands between notes. This record’s pace veers between the irresistible energy of Hullaspringar (Hole Jumps) and the reverence of its religious climax, Man Fandt Jo Dette Himmelsind (This Heavenly Mind Was Found), where singer Åshild Vetrhus startlingly pulls you back through the centuries. Read the full review
4. Poor Creature – All Smiles Tonight
An Irish folk super-trio comprising Landless’s Ruth Clinton, Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada and their live drummer John Dermody, Poor Creature diverted from the intensity of their other groups to make one of 2025’s most surprising, haunting and gently poppy debuts. The title track and Adieu Lovely Erin spring off digital rhythms to sound like Broadcast entering the whirlpools of folk, while in Willie-O and Irish love song An Draighneán Donn (The Blackthorn Tree), they build up delightful, dream-like layers of texture. Fiddles and guitars mix with theremin, mid-century organs and modern-day synthesisers to create an intriguing new palette for the genre. Read the full review
3. Savina Yannatou, Primavera en Salonico and Lamia Bedioui – Watersong
A collection of 14 folk songs that swirl around an essential, mystical resource that can both cleanse and drown, Watersong takes us across Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa with an explorer’s verve. Greek singer Yannatou stunningly conveys longing in O Onda (The Wave) and A los Baños del Amor (To the Baths of Love), bends her voice elsewhere like a multi-faceted piece of percussion, and clicks magically with the album’s other great singer, Tunisia’s Bedioui. Primavera en Salonico’s players also provide fascinating accompaniment on the ney (an ancient flute), the qanun (an Arabian zither) and bowed waterphone. Read the full review
2. Širom – In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper
West African xylophones, Moroccan guembris and resonator guitars are among the two dozen instruments creating the intense, shining soundworlds on the fifth album by Slovenian trio Širom. Its seven tracks come with fittingly mystical titles like Curls Upon the Neck, Ribs Upon the Mountain – a track that begins in intense fiddle harmonies before drums and wails ramp up a mood of menace – and No One’s Footsteps Deep in the Beat of a Butterfly’s Wings, which blends frisky bluegrass with a flute’s high sighs. A rollercoaster journey showing the potential of traditional instruments to make mayhem. Read the full review
1. Quinie – Forefowk, Mind Me
An album that has dug deep into my bones since its release in May, this set of Scots Travellers’ songs, put together by Josie Vallely, AKA Quinie (pronounced “q-why-nee” – “young woman” in the Doric dialect), came accompanied by liner notes and a film, made while Vallely travelled on horseback through Argyll. It’s a raw 11-song set, exploring with lusty innovation and energy what our forefowk (ancestors) mean to us, how they care for us and how we care for them. Influenced by the practices of canntaireachd (the vocal mimicry of pipe music), sean-nós singing, spoken-word and raw a cappella, it’s soul-rattling stuff, reminding us of the past as we approach our fragile future. Read the full review
