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Definitive conversations with our favourite artists
A collaboration between psychedelic French band PoiL and Japanese traditional musician Junko Ueda, inspired by a 12th century sea battle and its aftermath, resulted in not one, but two of the best albums of last year. Ahead of a performance at Tremor Festival next month, they speak to David McKenna
The experimental drone folk artist talks to Alex Rigotti about her new album Engelchen which tells the incredible story of Ida and Louise Cook who used their love of opera to save the lives of Jewish people endangered by German Nazis during the 1930s. Home page portrait by William Lacalmontie
John Doran talks to bouzouki player, folk singer and Syrian emigrant Mohammad Syfkhan about his astounding album, I Am Kurdish, and considers what it means to be an Irish musician. With thanks to Willie Stewart and Cormac MacDiarmada. CW: contains biographical details that may cause distress
Jesse Bernard spots Detroit rapper Danny Brown at an Arsenal match, sees him play live in Shoreditch, and then interviews him about just how deep his love for grime goes (and his recent experiences in and out of rehab and one of last year's finest albums, Quaranta). All photographs by Peter Beste
Ahead of a show as part of EFG London Jazz Festival this month, saxophonist, composer and improviser James Brandon Lewis speaks to Stewart Smith about honouring the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, his unique compositional system Molecular Systematic Music and more
Ahead of a performance at Le Guess Who?, where he also serves as guest curator, Slauson Malone 1 speaks to Patrick Clarke about his new record Excelsior, blending the scientific and the fantastical, and why one’s musical taste should never be trusted
Christina Hazboun meets Lebanese multi-disciplinary artist Yara Asmar, to discuss her deeply personal new record inspired by the journey of her grandmother’s accordion, her grandfather’s reel to reel recordings of birds, the necessity of disconnection and more
Ahead of his performance at Le Guess Who? next month, Vanessa Ague speaks to Bill Orcutt, who charts the series of serendipities and chance encounters that led to one of the most boundary-pushing and varied careers in experimental guitar playing
John Francis Flynn is just about to release one of the year's finest albums, Look Over The Wall, See The Sky. Here he talks to John Doran about the violence and otherworldliness of traditional music and the radical symbol of the mole. Scroll down feature for the premiere of the Willie Crotty video
Elizabeth Bernholz talks to Emma Garland about facing fundamental fears, her childhood experiences with spectral visitors and what ghosts really represent. Her brand new video for 'Fear Keeps Us Alive' is below. All portraits by Teri Varhol
In 2020, Belfast guitarist Joe McVeigh became the victim of a sectarian attack, his perpetrators leaving him “one kick away from murder”. Alex Rigotti digs into how this inspired Enola Gay’s new EP, as well as the links between raves, punk and folk music. CW: Contains image of violence
Charles Hayward and Agathe Max, two-fifths of experimental supergroup Abstract Concrete, talk to Ben Graham about creative evolution, learning to work with melody and structure, and saying goodbye to rock & roll. All portraits by Lewis Hayward
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