New music round-up

Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 25 December 2020.

Where The World Is Thin is the new album from Kris Drever, a writer and guitarist whose songwriting consistently sets high standards in modern folk music. Drever’s voice and guitar form a part of the backbone of today’s contemporary roots and folk scene. Hugely admired as a solo artist, collaborator, a phenomenal and prolific artist. Kris has collaborated with Cream’s Jack Bruce, Tinariwen, Joan As Police Woman, Jerry Douglas, Danny Thompson, Rosanne Cash, Eddi Reader, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, The Lost Spell Songs collective and many more. Insightful lyrics, huge hooks with universal and personal lyrical themes, Where The World Is Thin is another important artistic statement from Kris Drever. An album that perfectly captures the mood of these uncertain times.

Muriel Grossmann is an Austrian saxophonist and composer who’s played and recorded with jazz greats such as Joachim Kühn, Christian Lillinger, and Robert Landfermann. Her new album is Quiet Earth, available now through RRGEMS. The album features Grossmann on soprano, alto and tenor saxophones; Radomir Milojkovic on guitar; Gina Schwarz on bass; Uros Stamenkovic on drums and Llorenç Barceló on organ.

Swedish duo My Darling YOU! are masters of short, shouty, energetic pop songs combining guitars, keyboards, and percussion with handsome melodies and ace vocals. The band—comprised of Klas Hermansson and Christoffer Johansson—formed in 2004 and released ten singles over an eight-year period, beginning with a series of self-released gems and building to a stunning run of releases on the hip Luxury Records label. Their latest release, A Dream Come True ,collects 20 highlights from these long sold-out singles into a cohesive and impressive album to showcase the band to a wider audience than the original Swedish-only releases.

Decca Classics has released a new collection of arias from Cecilia Bartoli, titled The Queen of Baroque. Cecilia’s first compilation album in a decade features the very best of Bartoli’s treasured recordings of musical delights and discoveries of the 17th and 18th centuries, including two previously unreleased, world premiere recordings of forgotten jewels by Italian composers Leonardo Vinci and Agostino Steffani. A champion of Baroque repertoire throughout her career, Cecilia is joined on this recording by special guests Philippe Jaroussky, June Anderson, Franco Fagioli and Sol Gabetta, sharing her passion for musical curiosities uncovered throughout the centuries.

808s & Greatest Hits have shared their much-anticipated second album Greatest Hits II. The musical project of Skube Burnell and his many collaborators, 808s & Greatest Hits continue to spin the wheels of experimentation in the follow up to their debut album Cabin Vibes which was released in late 2019. Burnell begun working on the new album in late 2019 whilst recording and mixing previous release Cabin Vibes. The album started as an eclectic suite of 16 songs written by Skube that were eventually honed and whittled down to a tidy selection of 8 – crafted, mutated and reworked to evolve into its final form – Greatest Hits II. As opposed to the solo recording process of Cabin Vibes, 808s & Greatest Hits enlisted the help of producer, engineer and all round good guy / musical virtuoso Dylan Young (Way Dynamic, Snowy Band, Emma Russack, Cool Sounds) to help shape the new album.

So if Elliot Smith landed in a recording studio with Christopher Nolan and Radiohead just after having drinks with Vincent van Gogh and Fyodor Dostoevsky, something very close to Remote Viewer by Opal Hush would have inevitably been recorded. Philadelphia resident and Old Bear Records newcomer Ryan Anderson a.k.a. Opal Hush is punching above his weight class and giving Rocky Balboa a run for his money.