Songlines Magazine

2 weeks ago | songlines.co.uk | Andrew Taylor-Dawson

Rating: ★★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: Ilkka Arola Sound Tagine Label: Flame Jazz Records / Playground Music Finland June/2025 This is the fourth instalment of genre crossing ethno-jazz fusion from Finnish multi-instrumentalist Ilkka Arola and his band Sound Tagine. The main man plays striking bouzouki and trumpet parts, plus synth passages and the odd vocal across the set.

3 weeks ago | songlines.co.uk | Wif Stenger

Rating: ★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: Áššu Label: Nordic Notes June/2025 Joik vocalist Ulla Pirttijärvi is among northern Finland’s strongest Indigenous voices. Pirttijärvi combines her powerful singing with West African influences in her trio, Áššu. The name means ‘Glowing Embers’, and that sense of warmth permeates the group’s second album.

3 weeks ago | songlines.co.uk | Tim Cumming

Rating: ★★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: tartine de clous Label: Okraina Records June/2025 The 11 songs on this superbly performed set are drawn from something many of us have handled in our lives: an old shoebox. Inside the box were tapes of now long-lost singers, singing traditional songs of love and war, life and death. Songs from the Vendée department on France’s western seaboard.

3 weeks ago | songlines.co.uk | Doug DeLoach

Rating: ★★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: I’m With Her Label: Rounder Records June/2025 What started out in 2014 looking like a one-off or short-lived supergroup of Americana singer-songwriters – Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins – has blossomed into an ongoing project that consistently produces enlightened, emotionally resonant music.

3 weeks ago | songlines.co.uk | Erin Cobby

Thursday, May 15, 2025 By Erin Cobby The sonically enhanced environs of Polygon Live LDN created the perfect atmosphere for a bevy of musical icons to conjure and connect Arooj Aftab (photo by Erin Cobby) There was no need to weave and elbow a path to the front of the crowd at Polygon Live LDN, as this festival was all about finding your way to the middle.