Category: folk
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linda perhacs – parallelograms (1970)
It’s tempting to draw on some familiar names to help convey this record, but I’ll resist. That might validate the fact that Parallelograms went practically unheard until its 2003 reissue. It is a unique album, from a unique composer. The wistfulness is in tune with a woodland Aesop fable, but Perhacs’ folk isn’t a sun-glazed frolic […]
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geoffrey oryema – exile (1990)
The cover of Exile poses two possible scenarios: the person is being thrown, or they are raising their head as an expression of openness. The status of ‘exile’ holds the same dualism—free, in theory only, to go anywhere but your home. The record is a story of youthful longing, and we imagine the protagonist walking […]
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benjamin clementine – and i have been
Familiarising his eccentric spirit, Benjamin Clementine has produced a big-hearted record that swoops down to greet the listener. It is still unpredictable, but the force conducting ‘And I Have Been’ is benevolent—more like a guide than some epistemically distant energy. Clementine has a deep, timeless presence in his work. Here, he seems to connect history […]
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natalia lafourcade – de todas las flores
It will surprise no one that Natalia Lafourcade has made a beautiful album. It might surprise some that she has made this beautiful album. De Todas Las Flores is more muffled in essence than her previous records. It has a quiet, life-affirming warmth that cuddles the narrative maturation through love and love lost, taking into […]
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comus – first utterance (1971)
People are strange, so why is folk music ever anything but? Comus’ debut album crept from the roots of a mystical forest, where gothic festivities took place in the light of a burning fire. It is everything between creepy and fantastically beautiful—”I carry you to your grave, my arms your hearse” is one of the […]
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