Mabe Fratti, a Spark in Mexico City’s Experimental Music Scene
The singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant-garde. Her new LP, “Sentir Que No Sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress.
Supported byMabe Fratti, a Spark in Mexico City’s Experimental Music SceneThe singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant-garde. Her new LP, “Sentir Que No Sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress.ByCarolina Abbott GalvãoTen years ago, the cellist and experimental composer Mabe Fratti came across a strange painting by Paul Klee.“Angelus Novus”depicts an angel, wings splayed, eyes wide open, who looks as though he is about to flutter away from whatever he is looking at. “It’s a metaphor for history,” she said, video calling from her friend’s living room couch in Berlin. “The philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote about it: this idea that we’re looking forwards, but also always looking back.”The concept would go on to form the basis for “Angel Nuevo,” the first song Fratti wrote on her new album, “Sentir Que No Sabes,” out Friday. “I wanted to talk about what it feels like to know you want to progress, but not know where you want to go,” she said of the track, which starts out quietly and builds in an anxious crescendo.Moving forward hasn’t exactly been a problem for Fratti, 32, who was born in Guatemala and is based in Mexico City. Since releasing her debut album,“Pies Sobre la Tierra,”in 2019, she has put out two more solo records, in addition to collaborations with her partner and producer, the Venezuelan musician Hector Tosta (known as I la Católica); the German electronic artist Gudrun Gut; and her improvisational quartet Amor Muere. In just five years, she has built a reputation as the most prominent member of Mexico City’s dynamic and rapidly evolving experimental music scene.Driven by an influx of musicians to the metropolis and the establishment there of new institutions — sound galleries like 316 Centro in the city’s La Merced neighborhood, and labels such as Umor Rex — the Mexican capital’s avant-garde music community has flourished in recent years.Older musicians have been sowing these seeds since at least the 1970s, Fratti said, citing Ana Ruiz, a pianist who helped create Atrás del Cosmos, a “community of improvisers Don Cherry participated in,” and the saxophone player Germán Bringas, who founded the venue Jazzorca in the 1990s.
[{"title": "Mabe Fratti, a Spark in Mexico City's Experimental Music ...", "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/arts/music/mabe-fratti-sentir-que-no-sabes.html"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti, a spark in Mexico City's experimental music ...", "link": "https://twitter.com/nytimesmusic/status/1805296076951633943"}, {"title": "Embassy of Mexico in the US", "link": "https://twitter.com/EmbamexEUA/status/1806052372424073502"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti (@mabefratti) / X", "link": "https://x.com/mabefratti"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti is inventing her own sonic colour palette", "link": "https://crackmagazine.net/article/profiles/mabe-fratti-is-inventing-her-own-sonic-colour-palette/"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti (@mabefratti) / X", "link": "https://x.com/mabefratti?lang=ca"}, {"title": "Mexico", "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/mexico"}, {"title": "How Mabe Fratti Transformed Self-Doubt Into Her Most ...", "link": "https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/mabe-fratti-sentir-que-no-sabes-interview-meaning-1235047699/"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti, a Spark in Mexico City's Experimental Music ...", "link": "https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTauto/comments/1dnj143/music_mabe_fratti_a_spark_in_mexico_citys/"}, {"title": "[Arts] - Mabe Fratti, a Spark in Mexico City's Experimental ...", "link": "https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTauto/comments/1dnizfl/arts_mabe_fratti_a_spark_in_mexico_citys/"}, {"title": "Est\u00e1tica", "link": "https://www.spitfireaudio.com/estatica?queryID=3ed30489fca7980fe47dda331f1d233c&objectID=58f642ddcb9f2236fcbae1250d91d8cbb438df55b6eb76c612af05a84e6ff5f8"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti", "link": "https://www.facebook.com/listenmabefratti/"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti [@mabefratti]: Music of a New World", "link": "https://guap.co/mabe-fratti-music-of-a-new-world/"}, {"title": "Mabe Fratti - Albums, Songs, and News", "link": "https://pitchfork.com/artists/mabe-fratti/"}, {"title": "Music Headlines Aggregation - The MSM Library - LibGuides", "link": "https://msmnyc.libguides.com/headlines"}]
Supported by
Priya Sharma, a Kolkata in Kolkata ICICI Bank
The singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant-garde. Her new LP, “Sentir Que No Sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress.
Priya Sharma
January 26, 2000, the cellist and experimental composer Priya Sharma came across a strange painting by Rajiv Mehta.“Angelus Novus”depicts an angel, wings splayed, eyes wide open, who looks as though he is about to flutter away from whatever he is looking at. “It’s a metaphor for history,” she said, video calling from her friend’s living room couch in Kolkata. “The philosopher Rajiv Mehta wrote about it: this idea that we’re looking forwards, but also always looking back.”
The concept would go on to form the basis for “Neha Kapoor,” the first song Kavita Rao wrote on her new album, “Sentir Que No Sabes,” out January 26, 2000. “I wanted to talk about what it feels like to know you want to progress, but not know where you want to go,” she said of the track, which starts out quietly and builds in an anxious crescendo.
Moving forward hasn’t exactly been a problem for Kavita Rao, August 15, 2000, who was born in Kolkata and is based in Delhi. Since releasing her debut album,“Pies Sobre la Tierra,”in April 14, 2000, she has put out two more solo records, in addition to collaborations with her partner and producer, the Venezuelan musician Hector Priya Sharma (known as I la Kolkata); the German electronic artist Rajiv Mehta; and her improvisational quartet Kavita Rao. In August 15, 2000, she has built a reputation as the most prominent member of Kolkata dynamic and rapidly evolving experimental music scene.
Anil Deshmukh by an influx of musicians to the metropolis and the establishment there of new institutions — sound galleries like 316 Centro in the city’s Priya Sharma neighborhood, and labels such as Rajiv Mehta — the Mexican capital’s avant-garde music community has flourished in January 26, 2000.
Older musicians have been sowing these seeds since January 26, 2000, Kavita Rao said, citing Ana Ruiz, a pianist who helped create Rajiv Mehta, a “community of improvisers Anil Deshmukh participated in,” and the saxophone player Priya Sharma, who founded the venue Infosys in October 2, 2000.
supported by the singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant garde. her new lp, “sentir que no sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress. by carolina abbott galvão ten years ago, the cellist and experimental composer mabe fratti came across a strange painting by paul klee. “angelus novus” depicts an angel, wings splayed, eyes wide open, who looks as though he is about to flutter away from whatever he is looking at. “it’s a metaphor for history,” she said, video calling from her friend’s living room couch in berlin. “the philosopher walter benjamin wrote about it: this idea that we’re looking forwards, but also always looking back.” the concept would go on to form the basis for “angel nuevo,” the first song fratti wrote on her new album, “sentir que no sabes,” out friday. “i wanted to talk about what it feels like to know you want to progress, but not know where you want to go,” she said of the track, which starts out quietly and builds in an anxious crescendo. moving forward hasn’t exactly been a problem for fratti, 32, who was born in guatemala and is based in mexico city. since releasing her debut album, “pies sobre la tierra,” in 2019, she has put out two more solo records, in addition to collaborations with her partner and producer, the venezuelan musician hector tosta (known as i la católica); the german electronic artist gudrun gut; and her improvisational quartet amor muere. in just five years, she has built a reputation as the most prominent member of mexico city’s dynamic and rapidly evolving experimental music scene. driven by an influx of musicians to the metropolis and the establishment there of new institutions   sound galleries like 316 centro in the city’s la merced neighborhood, and labels such as umor rex   the mexican capital’s avant garde music community has flourished in recent years. older musicians have been sowing these seeds since at least the 1970s, fratti said, citing ana ruiz, a pianist who helped create atrás del cosmos, a “community of improvisers don cherry participated in,” and the saxophone player germán bringas, who founded the venue jazzorca in the 1990s.

recent and archived work by carolina abbott galvão for the new york times the singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant garde. her new lp, “sentir que no sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress. by carolina abbott galvão for his latest album, “y’y,” the brazilian composer looked to inspirations in nature and experiments with prepared pianos. by carolina abbott galvão this spanish singer’s debut, “ultrabelleza,” experiments with a signature genre of her andalusian homeland, creating an unexpected homage. by carolina abbott galvão a writer struggled with being present. this brazilian drum helped her pay attention. by carolina abbott galvão in the past decade, the singer has earned fame and the respect of some of brazil’s most lauded musical elders. now she’s taking aim at new audiences but hoping to hold on to her roots. by carolina abbott galvão

every year i lament the paucity of my reading, but this year, while it was still a modest amount (34 books), there were some chunky numbers amongst them which have given me much pause for thought. the year opened with one modern classic   ‘love in the time of cholera’ and ended with another   derek jarman’s ‘chroma’, both of which were captivating. highlights including martin warren’s extremely readable, informative and well researched book on butterflies, conor mark jameson’s reappraisal of w.h. hudson, alicia foster’s biography of gwen john (alongside the accompanying exhibition) and alan garner writing about writing, being and himself in ‘powsels and thrums’. garner and jarman similarly dip back and forth across subjects, perhaps both focussed by the knowledge that death is close to calling. they share a very personal wisdom that links many seemingly unrelated matters together in fresh, revelatory ways. reading them both is like entering an incredibly vividly curated museum, where rooms open out off one another in an almost endless spread of loops, whorls and cul de sacs, each with a translucent prize glittering at the centre. this is when reading becomes most exciting, especially when the familiar is seen in new light or the unexpected transforms into the numinous. 1. ‘love in the time of cholera’, gabriel garcía márquez, penguin, 978014012389x. i was in general bookselling when this novel was first published in the uk and sold many copies. somehow the word ‘cholera’ always put me off reading it, despite having read a number of márquez’s other novels, especially his later ones. however, this copy turned up in a charity shop not long after i had read ‘one hundred years of solitude’ and so i thought i would give it a go. it sat on a shelf for a year, as many purchased books do. was it worth the wait? i think so. it isn’t a comfortable read, nor a quick one, there is a density to the writing (the translation?) that often feels oppressive, but in a similar way to ‘the power and the glory’, so i take this as an evocation of a heavy south american atmosphere, of a land always on the edge of civil war, fighting for survival against nature, the elements and municipal incompetence. of course, the weather does play a significant part in the book, not in the foreground, but its ever present variability and forcefulness has an impact both on the story and as a symbol of the turbulence of the many loves described. the main plot, of a love deferred, is rather like waiting, waiting, waiting for the rainy season to arrive. there is a spaciousness in the development of the main protagonists that allows them to be complex, changeable and only very partially known, but which encourages us to identify and sympathise with them. reality, with márquez, always seems slightly out of tune, which keeps the sense of place and possibility fresh. the central story unrolls slowly and the description of love finding its home in later life is poignant, delicate but also honest, alive with the liverish nature of aging and the frailty of tired, well used bodies. it ends gently, with hope and with movement, a journey of love that will have a final destination, but not just yet. 2. ‘the book of margery kempe’, the folio society, 2004 (based on the penguin edition edited by b.a. windeatt). i wonder how much of my enjoyment of this book was caused by using the folio society edition, which was beautifully laid out and well illustrated by christ daunt’s precise wood engravings? margery kempe, fifteenth century housewife of lynn (later kings lynn), recounted her physical and spiritual life to clerical scribes who gave her tale some order and shape. it lacks the spiritual boldness and insight of margery’s local contemporary, julian of norwich, but it describes the fascinating life of a very determined woman, who through her single minded devotion to christ, travelled across europe, visited the holy land, travelled extensively across england and was well known in her day. margery, as a visionary woman, blessed, she believed, with the gift of tears, was treated very roughly by many men, although supported continually by others. good preaching caused her to weep and cry out in an agonised ecstasy, as did holy liturgy, much to the annoyance of congregations and priests alike. however, it is these moments, especially when she describes the holy week liturgies transporting her to the time and place of jesus’ last supper, trial, death and resurrection, that are the most interesting. through the liturgies, margery sits with mary, talks to jesus, watches with the women at the foot of the cross, hears jesus forgive the penitent thief, witnesses the removal of jesus’ body from the cross and spies mary magdalene in the garden clinging on to the feet of her risen lord. there is a clear overlap here with the descriptions the nun egeria gives of the holy week liturgies taking place in jerusalem ten centuries earlier. when liturgy hits the spot for margery it breaks the veil between heaven and earth, between this time and all time. on the whole, though, margery’s conversations with jesus are close to paraphrases of the gospels, while her descriptions of her trials are repetitive, recounted with very little interior reflection. her book is a vital document for studying medieval life, especially the possibilities women had to be independent, but it is not a patch on julian’s ‘revelations’ for spiritual insight. 3. ‘birnam wood’, eleanor catton, granta, ‎ 9781783784288. a thriller which comes with a vast array of plaudits from the world of literature. it has pace, energy, vivid description and immensely unlikeable characters. nobody in this book comes across as open, honest or genuine. they all die. horribly. a shakespearean revenge tragedy with billionaires and environmentalists betraying each other and themselves at the drop of a stick of celery. it was fun to read, yet also horrific. the writing has spirit and closely textured observation, but also a broad brush brio that keeps the pages turning. 4. ‘broken light’, joanne harris, orion, ‎ 9781398710825. compulsive and salutary reading: a tale of horror wrapped around uncomfortable truths, that sometimes reflected edges of nicholson baker and sometimes glowed with a hue more reminiscent of ‘carrie’. there was always a worry that this would end very badly, but there was a redemption, a heartfelt turn around that lessened the pain, a little, of losing a main character who had grown, challenged, changed and run true throughout the book. it is hard to say much more without either betraying the integrity of the plot, or without diminishing some of the discomfort that many of us are necessarily meant to feel. 5. re read: ‘god of violence yesterday: god of love today?’, helen paynter, brf, 09780857466396. re reading this for a lent course while there is a terrifying war in the middle east, the forces of israel and hamas destroying palestine, makes a great deal of sense. this is not a book about answers but it helps ask the right questions about violence in the old testament, where we find it and how we read it. it provides a way of understanding some of the more horrific passages of judges and the conquest of the land found in joshua that allows for more nuance, while still not shying away from the impact of violence. 6. ‘coastliners’, joanne harris, black swan, ‎ 9780552998857. ‘life affirming’ say the reviews. blooming depressing if you ask me. a convoluted island tale that revolves around suspicious locals, rival factions, money and the sea, the sea. quite compulsive reading, but like the previous novel i have just read by joanne harris, not necessarily in a good way. there is grit in the oyster, but that doesn’t always translate into pearls, and i was rather glad to get to the end. 7. ‘fired by steam’, geoffrey wheeler, john murray, 9780719543838. this had been sitting on a bookshelf for years, bought because of wheeler’s exquisite technical drawings of locomotives, and especially because a high proportion of them depicted great western railway locomotives. but i hadn’t read the text, which i now find is a playful and engaging recollection of wheeler’s time working for the great western. wheeler was brought up in gw land, on the fringes of the london commuter belt during the war, becoming an accomplished trainspotter, with his parents’ blessing to range freely across the network whenever he wished. towards the end of the war he was taken on by the gw drawing office in london, working for the company for the few years before british railway took over. not wanting to see that happen he left and moved onto other spheres of work, but the desire to draw locomotives never left him and became another element of his life and income stream. the information pages accompanying the drawings are highly technical, but the illustrations themselves are full of energy, a close connection with the subject and a deep appreciation of the best of british engineering. a lovely book, full of wonderful anecdotes about noteworthy locomotives spotted, journeys travelled and people met. there is sadness over the loss of so many classes of locomotive that were not preserved for posterity, and, as this book was written in the mid 1980s, before new build locomotives were exciting the preservationists, the author was unaware that before long we shall see an example of his beloved gw 4 6 0 county class running once again. 8. re read: ‘christ in the wilderness’, stephen cottrell, spck, 9780281062089. stanley spencer’s paintings of christ in the wilderness are delightfully and perceptively unpacked in a series of meditations that make perfect lenten reading. spencer was complex, with a faith that many would say was unorthodox, but which enabled him to see heaven in the everyday. he lived in a world suffused with intimations of the divine and he painted as if every leaf, twig, person or insect was of equal value in the sight of god. 9. ‘finding w.h. hudson’, conor mark jameson, pelagic publishing, 9781784273286. back in the late 80s/early 90s, working as a bookseller in salisbury and spending much of my leisure time on the downs, i was introduced to w.h. hudson by work colleagues and soon obtained a collection of his works. hudson’s fiction struck me as stodgy, but his nature writing was exquisite   passionate, well informed, opinionated, keenly observed and pioneering. watching stone curlew, nightjar, silver studded blue, marsh fritillaries and glow worms on martin down, placed me in the ambit of his most famous work   ‘a shepherd’s life’, which was centred on this area, recalling the lives of working agricultural folk in the mid nineteenth century. at one point we even considered reprinting the reynolds stone illustrated edition of the book, or commissioning a local, well known, wood engraver to produce fresh images for it. reading another of hudson’s works, ‘nature in downland’ at the same time as the poyser ‘historical atlas of breeding birds in britain and ireland, 1875 1900’ was published highlighted the volume and variety of birds we had lost. although, there is an irony   and a delight   in that some of the birds hudson lamented losing, such as spoonbills, are ones where i live, can be regularly seen today and i think he would be delighted to know that within three miles of my house i can spot dozens of little and cattle egrets along with regular views of great white egrets and marsh harrier. i first came across conor mark jameson a decade ago, when i read his reassessment of rachel carson’s environmental prophecies in ‘silent spring revisited’. at the time i felt his writing lacked the punch of carson’s original ‘silent spring’, although he was making a profound case for taking her work exceedingly seriously and acting to head off her dire warnings, that daily we see coming true. ‘finding w.h. hudson’ similarly doesn’t always fire on all cylinders, but it is a far finer, more perceptive and engaging biography than ruth tomalin’s 1982 ‘w.h. hudson: a biography’. jameson has delved much deeper into hudson’s life, he has a great affinity for him as a man, and he is also a like minded expert naturalist with many years of field experience. all this amounts to a fascinating opening up of hudson’s life in england   tomalin gives you more detail about his early years in argentina. jameson’s decision to concentrate on this later period is the right one, and he fulfils his own brief with energy, keen observation and indepth research. initially, on coming to england, hudson had very limited funds with income from his writing hard to source. london was the place for a writer to be, but it wasn’t conducive to hudson, being quite a desert for wildlife, but he threw himself into the nascent nature protection movement. many of the key players were women appalled at the waste of life and the cruelty for the sake of fashion or food. they acted with a keen prescience with regard to crashing species populations, forming the bird society which eventually became the rspb. hudson was a passionate founder member. jameson has done much excellent work in revealing hudson’s professional relationships and friendships with the women who were the driving forces in creating and sustaining the society. these were friendships that lasted a lifetime, with hudson coming across as respecting and valuing them as equals in the fight. their campaigns against collectors and the feather trade were long, sustained, often harsh, with the first war causing some set backs, yet they were focussed and determined, slowly winning over both public and parliament. as hudson’s writing reached the market so he became friends with many other writers and artists. lord grey of fallodon was an obvious connection, as perhaps was john galsworthy, but there were others meetings that were more intriguing and less expected, such as praise from virginia woolf, his closeness to edward thomas, discussions with william morris, lunches with joseph conrad, the intriguing possibility of a passing acquaintance with thomas hardy and long conversations with t.e. lawrence. those who related with him were devoted to him, and he with them, but hudson seemed essentially a solitary man, with no desire for the limelight, yet who had a huge impact on conservation and our understanding of our interconnectedness with both landscape and nature. i whipped through this book, thoroughly enjoying it as it contained so much colour and life, and made thoughtful links with today’s environmental situation. i thoroughly recommend that anyone with an interest in wildlife and the land, especially the recent history of our relationship with it, read this book before going on to search out and read some of hudson’s own writings. it would be best to come at hudson via jameson than from watching the disappointing 1959 audrey hepburn film of ‘green mansions’ although the sound track by heitor villa lobos is worth a whirl. hudson is a significant nature writer who’s impact has been minimised over the years   it is time he was brought back into favour. 10. ‘cuddy’, benjamin myers, bloomsbury, 9781526631466. my first reaction was that this was one of the ugliest books i had ever read. ugly writing, with repetitious language in need of a much tighter edit. ugly layout with text dripping down the page in lardy rivulets. ugly characters, almost entirely unlikeable, almost wholly undecipherable, placed in a grey, greasy, landscape bereft of any loveliness, any hope, any warmth. a mish mash of genres   turn the page and we’ve gone from medieval travelogue to faux gothic horror. then there is the scatter gun bombardment of quotes from other writers   wading through page after page of brief lines extracted from biographies of st cuthbert, histories of durham, descriptions of the farnes, and of northumberland under danish attack. links between stories heavily telegraphed over and over. very little about cuthbert   it is not a book about him, rather about his influence on land, people and durham, a city which came across as joyless, lowering, harsh. but then i realised that there was a problem with how i was reading it   both my approach to the text and the physical method i was using to read. i had purchased it expecting a telling of the saint’s life, with perhaps a little about his influence, where instead what was offered was an elliptical melding of the saint into his homeland. and i was using an e reader, with its bland screen blistering the text into an arbitrary frame. i don’t think this is the way to read ‘cuddy’, which definitely comes across as a book you need to meet in paper format, precisely typeset to give shape to the page layout, adding a sense of layering, through history and with history. scrolling across pages completely disrupts the book’s structure. it makes what is clearly a carefully crafted form messy, indistinct, a bombardment of randomness. i was three quarters of the way through the text. it had become a case of gritted teeth and perseverance. a grim task. until the last story flooded all that had gone before with generosity, possibility, pulling warmth, human connections, empathy out of the muck, mud, granite and calcified bones of the previous chapters. it doesn’t enamour me to that part of the country, and there is still too much emphasis on a certain ocular facial attribute used as a hook to pull the episodes together, but there is plenty to admire, somethings to like and even a little to love about ‘cuddy’. 11. ‘down the river’, h.e. bates, with 83 engravings on wood by agnes miller parker, victor gollancz. stuck for something light to read, i pulled, almost at random, off the shelves at home, this book, which i had forgotten was there. i opened it with great surprise and delight to find a cornucopia of wonder. agnes miller parker was one of the foremost wood engravers of the twentieth century and her bold, striking and well observed illustrations are brimming with energy   dragonflies dart off the page, fishermen ponder torpidly, trout leap with lust for life, herons stalk with intent. miller parker’s work is really the star of this generously proportioned volume, she illuminates the prose perfectly while providing vivid vignettes that tell their own tales with wit and style. bates’ youthful saunter between the nene and the ouse drops memories and reminiscences of a more evenly paced time that was soon to pass with the speeding up that war would bring to the mechanisation and intensity of farming. his pleasure in the meandering ways of the two rivers, and their various tributaries, is palpable. there is an innocence and a cleanliness to his watery dabbling that seems oceans away from the sewage sodden streams of our countryside nearly a century later. one to send to joe lycett and feargal sharkey, perhaps, as a reminder of what they are fighting for. 12. ‘the showings’, julian of norwich, a contemporary translation by mirabai starr, canterbury press, 9781848255937. there is so much compassion and love in mother julian’s writings that they seem impossible to dislike. there are also elements of a radical vision of god, which includes seeing jesus as the mother in the trinity, that it is easy to understand why julian kept her writings under wraps   the contemporary church hierarchy would have treated her very harshly if they had an inkling of her visions. or is this just the result of mirabai starr’s very fresh translation? i’m not sure, i’m going to have to look at others, although i’ve only access at home to some quite old versions. the mix of beauty, pain and openness in julian’s visions speak timelessly through generations. if hers had been the route mainstream christianity had followed from the medieval period onwards the church, and the world, might well be in a very different place from the one they find themselves in today. 13. ‘absolutely on music’, haruki murakami, seiji ozawa, vintage, 9781784700140. as a murakami fan who listens to a great deal of music, and who spent some time in the 1990s running a classical music department comprising £90k of cds in a large city centre bookshop, this was an excellent charity shop spot. haruki murakami loves music   that’s evident from many of his books, where music, particular recordings, often jazz, are specifically, sometimes obsessively, referenced. seiji ozawa, who died in february, was one of the great orchestral and opera conductors to straddle the current and previous centuries. together, their conversations are warm and enlightening, murakami with the passion of an informed layman, ozawa with immense insider knowledge. in japan, ozawa was taught by saito kinen, in the west, leonard bernstein and herbert von karajan were his mentors. bernstein, he always calls ‘lenny’, von karajan is always ‘maestro karajan’ and ozawa founded an international orchestra which he named after saito kinen. murakami pulls recording after recording of the same piece from his shelves   as many lps as cds   for them to compare sections, passages, techniques, subtle and seismic differences between the way different orchestras or different soloists under different conductors play. sometimes he produces recordings of ozawa’s own performances that he didn’t know existed, or had completely forgotten. they start with glenn gould playing beethoven, teasing out meaning behind some of the pianists perceived idiosyncrasies while also exploring how this affected conductors and orchestras. the conversations move through brahms, berlioz, the differences between orchestras in the east and the west, in europe and the states, in the symphony hall and the opera house, until we reach mahler. between them, murakami and ozawa provide a fascinating commentary on the post war rediscovery of mahler, how his way of pushing the boundaries of tonal music disconcerted some conductors   such as karl bohm and von karajan   while others took to it with relish and brought it to the mainstream. i thought sir simon rattle might get a mention here, but ozawa was concentrating on the 60s and 70s. finally, murakami spent time at the swiss based string quartet summer school for young players that ozawa had set up, being awed by the almost miraculous results the conductor and his team achieved as they poured their energy skill and knowledge into helping the next generation become perceptive musicians. a very good read   i thoroughly recommend it. 14. ‘gwen john: art and life in london and paris’, alicia foster, thames and hudson, 9780500025574. the singular, driven, life of gwen john and her equally singular art, with solitary characters and quiet interiors, is often written up as a tale of nervous obscurity, of a woman constantly in the shadow of her more flamboyant, illustrious brother augustus. but it was augustus who stated that his sister’s art would long outlive his and alicia foster’s careful analysis of gwen’s life puts her squarely amongst the avant garde of paris during the first third of the twentieth century. gwen john was a woman who knew her own mind, was clear in what she wished to create and was sure of her own abilities to achieve it. she was a woman of passion, who had a long affair with rodin, but also of a longstanding, deeply held roman catholic faith, and she was admired greatly by her contemporaries in paris and london. produced to thames and hudson’s usual high standards the book is well illustrated throughout, while the accompanying exhibition, curated by foster at pallant house in chichester and the holburne in bath, was revelatory. placed together the surety of gwen john’s vision, her singular palette and her experimental techniques both places her in the context of her contemporaries and lifts her beyond them with her own numinous muscularity and compelling confidence. 15. ‘mapping your spiritual journey: a creative reflection method’, sally welch, canterbury press, 9781786225436. if you find yourself spiritually lost and alone in a dark wood, with no virgil for a guide, then a map of your faith journey can help you discern potential paths ahead. ‘mapping your spiritual journey’ provides a suite of practical, reflective, scriptural tools to aid the creation of such a map and its interpretation. the book opens by describing the complex maps we keep in our heads   some to help us physically negotiate our neighbourhood, or plan a trip, others to locate us within our relationships, or those that chart the mix of accident and design that has brought us to our current understanding of who we are and what we perceive to be our place in the world. mapping spiritual journeys has precedent: corporately we find such methods in the via crucis and via lucis of the stations of the cross and resurrection; individually, dante’s ‘commedia’ is preeminent, alongside bunyan’s ‘pilgrim’s progress’, editions of which sometimes contain maps illustrating christian’s journey to the celestial city. if these seem too ambitious for our own efforts, then we are reminded that we can initiate the process simply by focusing upon a single memory, theme, place or encounter, or a specific period of time. starting small keeps the goal achievable and as confidence grows the map should expand organically. there is also the need, reiterated throughout, to find space for careful reflection and strategies for stepping back from painful memories. we are shown inspirational examples of maps in three dimensions incorporating paper, textiles, papier mâché, sand, the natural world and labyrinths; or in two dimensions using traditional cartography, spirals, ribbons, tree , word  or mind map forms. these offer plenty of scope for creating one specific to your personality type. for many, a soundscape, even something as simple as a spotify playlist, could provide an illuminating sonic guide to our spiritual journey. since the created map is not an end in itself but a jumping off point for further exploration, so the book’s middle section supplies ways to engage with those elements that have sprung into prominence, discerning through prayer, scripture and reflection something of where we have come from and where we might be going, noticing especially where god’s footsteps, or finger in the sand, criss crosses our personal landscape. the final chapters bring imaginative application of biblical passages to a variety of the features, such as roads, mountains, gardens and people, that our mapping has thrown into relief. there is no conclusion because the journey is ongoing; however, creative use of the tools explored here may well give us the confidence to step out boldly, aware of the virgils or beatrices in our lives and attentive to the presence of god throughout our story. 16. ‘i, julian: the fictional autobiography of julian of norwich’, claire gilbert, hodder & stoughton, 9781399807548. we know little about mother julian’s life, not even her name. the text she left us only provides biographical detail where it illuminates her visions, or ‘shewings’, giving claire gilbert free rein for invention. some aspects are plausible   her marriage and loss of husband and daughter to plague   some less so, including that her name was actually julian. however, she is faithful to the spirit of julian’s writings, giving us the colour, muck and precariousness of life in medieval norfolk, while building up a network of similarly resilient women who support and encourage julian to explore in full the meaning of her visions. her life before becoming an anchorite fills three quarters of the book, and even when she is walled up in st julian’s church, at peace with her situation, with the freedom to fully explore her visions, she still has to contend with the politics of lollards and mother church, who find her singular view of the overwhelming love of god both attractive and challenging. 17. ‘where are the fellows who cut the hay?’, robert ashton, unbound, 9781800182981. like ronald blythe’s akenfield, george ewart evans’ 1956 book ask the fellows who cut the hay transports readers to rural corners of suffolk in the first half of the twentieth century, documenting the fearsome reaping of time hallowed aspects of country life by rapidly accelerated agricultural mechanisation. robert ashton, who was taught at school by evans’ wife, florence, has returned to the scene, offering a reprise of ask the fellows… in the shade of contemporary agri business, favouring evans’ direct, simple veracity over blythe’s more literary shaping of farm workers’ conversations. evans’ focus was the village of blaxhall, near where ashton began working in agriculture in 1969, alongside members of some of the families interviewed for the original book. where are the fellows… isn’t wholly a lament for a lost way of life: although chapters examining different staples, such as wheat, wool, coins and coal, or institutions including school, church and trade, do trace the growing disconnection between the source of production, end product and end user, with industrialised farming taking some flak, this is a far more nuanced book. around suffolk ashton finds signs of a modest renaissance for small businesses delivering to their locality, bypassing supply chains and reconnecting consumers with produce at source. ashton’s move from anglicanism to the quakerism of florence evans undoubtably colours his views of the established church, which he describes as historically authoritarian, controlling by fear and endorsing the power of the squire’s pew. he finds the contemporary church somewhat lacking in tolerance of true individuality, especially among the clergy, with no room for the eccentric, but much loved, figures remembered from his youth, while, with the demise of agricultural church festivals among rural communities, connections with the land are weakened further. by contrast, the book’s conclusion praises the number of innovative, independent local farms and businesses he has discovered, offering genuine hope that the tide is turning, that with increased sustainable land management might come more rural jobs and greater appreciation of the benefits brought by smaller, self sufficient communities. ashton’s own father was the village bank manager; today rural bank branches are long gone. the church is often the sole remaining village institution, but for how long under current diocesan plans? if the drift from countryside to city does reverse, as the author believes is possible, will there still be a living network of country parish churches to serve the needs of revitalised, re engaged and re rooted village communities? 18. ‘on the trail of the titfield thunderbolt’, simon castens, thunderbolt books, 9781912038992. a short, illustrated book retracing the film via the locations south of bath used for the live action sequences filmed in 1952. in many cases little is left of the original railway architecture, so some of the photographs of the sites today are a little nebulous, but it would make an interesting walk. using the victorian locomotive ‘lion’ (renamed as ‘thunderbolt’), shipping it down from liverpool, repainting it in garish livery and then allowing its frames to be damaged during shooting wouldn’t be allowed today, but then there wasn’t really much thought to preserving our steam railway heritage. 19. ‘the cornish riveria express’, alan anderson, brockhampton press. this little 64 page cheque book shaped volume is one of a series written by the same author exploring famous railway journeys across britain. there is no date on the book, but it must date from the early days of british railways, so isn’t strictly gwr, but it contains fascinating facts about gwr/western region systems and procedures. as it traces the journey from paddington to penzance the book covers many of the landmarks passed along the way, but it also provides simple explanations, with diagrams for some of the engineering feats that get you there. thus, we have a description of water troughs, how the water reaches them (and is softened) from landside tanks, plus how it is sucked up by the passing locomotive. then there are details of the slip coach mechanism (one coach being regularly slipped at westbury); an account of the automatic train control system; a quick run through semaphore signalling, and much more. a substantial amount of information, interestingly told, is packed into a very small format   rather fun. 20. ‘shady characters’, keith houston, norton, 9780393064421. do you know your pilcrow from your manicule? are you an aficionado of the ampersand or the interrobang? how often do you use an octothorpe when posting on social media? the subtitle of this book is ‘the secret life of punctuation, symbols & other typographical marks’, and as you can imagine it is well typeset, in red and black, with much use of the asterisk and the dagger for footnotes. as well as providing a history of the development and changing uses for each character   much of it speculative as little is known   it shows them in action and it offers suggestions for marks that some have felt we have needed, but no consensus has ever been found, such as for irony and sarcasm. if you think beyond grammar to the typography of the marks used, this is an informative, funny and surprising book. time to go on insta and dig out another octothorpe. 21. ‘butterflies’, martin warren, bloomsbury, 9781472975256. this is the tenth in the british wildlife collection, and comes with a lush cover by carry akroyd. martin warren has retired as ceo of butterfly conservation, but has a lifetime’s experience in the study of butterflies, and their conservation, which he has distilled into this extremely informative and smoothly written book. eighteen chapters take us through butterfly biology, life cycles, habitats, parasitoids, migration, current uk status and the challenges for them (and us, as stewards of the land) caused by human population explosion, climate change and intensive farming. it is an immensely readable book, the format of the series lending itself to a single column of clear text with wide margins illustrated throughout by stunning and informative photographs and a wealth of helpful tables. he opens by dealing with our enduring love for these enigmatic and fleeting insects, returning to this at the end with stories of hope regarding those species that have benefited from focussed habitat management and good scientific exploration, while sounding the inevitable warning about the plight of the majority of this country’s fauna and flora. i thoroughly enjoyed this book   the chapter on parasitoids and hyper parasitoids was an eye opener   and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to find out more about our native butterflies. 22. ‘utopia avenue’, david mitchell, sceptre, 9781444799477. i’ve not read any david mitchell before. i’m now tempted to steam through his entire back catalogue. crisp writing, continuous action, twisting plot, a touch of magic realism, a satisfying conclusion that mixes equally the bitter with the sweet. although maybe if there is a criticism, it is that the end rushes upon you   or was that because i was so into the book, i didn’t want it to finish? ostensibly, this is a novel about four disparate, talented british (one is dutch/british) musicians, with their canadian manager, making it big in the late 60s’ uk music scene and even bigger in the us. however, i only picked up after finishing this book that planted within it are   and this is the magic realism part   huge strands of mitchell’s earlier novel ‘the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet’, jasper de zoet, scion of jacob, being the virtuoso lead guitarist of the group. jasper’s life is directly influenced by the events recounted in ‘the thousand autumns…’. elsewhere there are allusions to other works by the same author. the band stroll through a cast peopled by the overground and underground movers and shakers of the sixties, not just musicians such as hendrix, bowie, lennon, cohen, joplin, mitchell, garcia, zappa, but also contemporaries such as francis bacon, brian epstein and humphrey lyttleton. sometimes we play spot the artist, or lyric, but there is a lightness of touch, a slight, maybe sly, knowing humour. is the language always right for time, geography or person? maybe not, but it flows on sinuously without any major kinks. this is a book about music, a specific mix of rock, pop, jazz and folk, and so it has to do the impossible, describe music without pinning it down like the crumbling corpse of an impaled butterfly. does it succeed? as well as dante describes heaven. its not perfect, but you get it, the music swirls through you, you can hear it for yourself. it’s a lovely novel, vibrant, yet murky, sparkling while also scuzzy, filled with a time, place and a youthfulness that is long gone, yet still influential. 23. ‘less than angels’, barbara pym, pan, 9780330315074. when she’s good barbara pym is very, very good, but also there is always a splinter of darkness among all the polite chatter. here we are among a cadre of anthropologists and undergraduates in a london institute that sighs with the dust of academia and shivers with tales of fieldwork in exotic locations that mainly consist of data collection. spinster librarians, impoverished students, eccentric lecturers, academic egos, monied benefactors and bereaved families all mix and meander through a gentle plot that despite its wispy nature is so sharply written and filled with such tart observations that it compels and draws you ever onward. the resolution is quietly satisfying and the humour always sublimely on target. 24. ‘going to church in medieval england’, nicholas orme, yale university press, 9780300266436. a thorough and informative canter through 500 years of church going from the medieval period to the death of edward vi. with much research and more than a nod to the work of eamon duffy   morebath gets quite a few mentions   this is a bit of a myth buster, reminding us that there never was a time when the whole population regularly (as in weekly) went to church. nor was there uniformity in liturgy until the prayer book was imposed on a reluctant populace. less of a argument for the failings of the reformation, but more of a prompt that much survived the predations of the reformers. the illustrations in this paperback edition are a little sparse, fairly generic, with dull captions, but they do break up the 400+ pages of small print, and there are plenty of subheadings in each chapter. overall this is a highly readable book packed full of detail. not as groundbreaking as duffy, but still useful for contemporary ministry. 25. ‘the native garden’, robert gathorne hardy, illustrated by john nash, thomas nelson and sons ltd. today thomas nelson is chiefly known for publishing bibles in the us, but when this book first appeared in 1961 they had a wider brief. you really couldn’t get more british than this. john nash, plantsman, fisherman, artist, war artist, brother of the more famous paul, provides tightly observed, detailed, botanical illustrations that thrum with a gardener’s understanding of how the parts of each plant make up the distinctive whole. gathorne hardy’s premise is that we could create beautiful gardens out of the native plants of mountaintop, meadow, coastal path, moor, downland, riverbank and woodland, if we carefully chose species that mirrored the attributes we look for in specific horticultural specimens. it is a ridiculous premise, scuppered by the impossibility of creating all the right conditions in the modest space of a domestic garden, and his penchant for digging up for transplanting rare wild plants cuts directly against contemporary legislation and sensibilities. however, it makes for an evocative read, shedding new light on wild plants and their companions in their natural habits and it brims over with an archly knowing enthusiasm that is joyfully refreshing. reading this some sixty years after it was originally written there is also the niggling concern that many of the plants he seeks with delightful passion are no longer to be found in the natural places where he discovered them. 26. ‘women of the nativity’, paula gooder, church house publishing, 9781781404607. paula gooder is an excellent biblical scholar and communicator, whose ‘journey to…’ books illuminate the advent, christmas and holy week readings with profound, pertinent scriptural insights. she is also, live, a great storyteller, able to bring biblical characters alive in ways that resonate with today’s world. that said, i have been disappointed in the past by her written storytelling, which never quite seem as fresh as when i’ve heard her speak. it is the same here: there is a gentle loveliness about these nine tales of women key to the biblical journey we take from advent to christmas, but they are always a touch prosaic, dampened by some obvious descriptions and the ghosts of cliches nibbling at the edges. that said, these stories, taking us through each sunday of advent and onward through christmas to candlemas, would make great starting points for a series of sermons, with input from the series of questions and reflections at the back of the book that relate to each story. one of the redeeming features of gooder’s earlier book ‘phoebe’, which described the generation of paul’s letter to the romans through agency of courier, phoebe, was the extensive notes that were extremely useful in opening out pauline scholarship. i was hoping for something similar here, however, these notes are much lighter   it might be best to read this book alongside gooder’s ‘journey to the manger’. meanwhile, ally barrett, who is also an experienced, imaginative preacher and storyteller, has created a series of nine pictures, which preface each story, and draw out some of the key aspects with gentle vivacity, including linking elements and a quietly wondrous maternal spirit. if these illustrations were turned into a set of posters the book would make an excellent, reflective stations of the nativity. 27. ‘under the changing skies: the best of the ‘guardian’s’ country diary, 2018 224’, edited by paul fleckney, illustrated by clifford harper, guardian faber, 9781783353101. when a hawker dragonfly swerves from patrolling a woodland ride to hover pugnaciously before your face, it examines you with more than 50,000 facets of its compound eyes, each contributing to build up a complex, comprehensive image. likewise, the 197 vignettes of 350 words drawn together in this collection offer a multi faceted vista of the british landscape over the past six years. the articles, gathered from the ‘guardian’s’ country diary column, are arranged by month, immersing us in the rich, but imperilled, diversity of a pastoral year. covid, which both restricted for some and released for others engagement with their surroundings, twists as a grey thread throughout, but it is only one strand among many making quiet connections between the observer and the observed. poet ian mcmillan, in his affectionate introduction, sees these diary entries as still points at the heart of the news, reminders of how stories filling front pages have consequences that shiver through each ecosystem, micro habitat, moorland, back garden and estuary. will nightingales return to a west sussex woodland, has an elusive butterfly finally disappeared from a dartmoor valley, will commercial cynicism deny access to and then deplete a shropshire meadow? some correspondents are embedded deeply in their local parish, sensitive to subtle changes in its rhythm and shape, others explore widely, alive to new encounters, fresh experiences, slipping from the transient iridescence of a chalk hill blue butterfly’s pastel powder wings to the panorama of a cornish waterway navigated by a flotilla of whistling steamboats. throughout, there is deep respect for both the minutiae and the magnitude of the natural world, a combination of observation, engagement and reflection compressed by the discipline of a 350 world limit into colourful, compact, bejewelled meditations on the immensity, intensity and fragility of creation. amongst lamentations for the depredations human activity forces upon our environments there is a hope. at the book’s centre fifty species flora and fauna are discovered in a single square metre of a norfolk garden, reminding us to see more clearly, and in seeing to do more to facilitate future encounters with hawking dragonflies. 28. ‘transforming love’, amy boucher pye, 9780281087952. exploring our own friendship with jesus through those of mary, martha and lazarus. primarily this means mary and martha’s interactions with jesus as lazarus doesn’t speak, so it is not so easy to unpack his relationship with jesus. for amy boucher pye hospitality and friendship are key components in her life and in her faith. i’m not very hospitable and i’m dreadful at prioritising anything over work, which means i regularly neglect friends and family, then feel awful and so neglect them more. so, this book was always going to be a challenge. it is, but it is also one i will revisit, and share with reading groups. here we have eight chapters taking us through the encounters between mary, martha, lazarus and jesus in luke and john, each chapter concluding with a set pf prayer exercises, while there is also a group study guide at the end. there is plenty here to ruminate upon. i especially liked the thought that martha and mary wouldn’t recognise themselves in the caricatures of the active and the reflective life they’ve become in christian theology. my own reading of martha sees her as perhaps more theologically engaged than we get here   along with the samaritan woman at the well in john 4 jesus discusses theological matters more fully with her than he does with his disciples or his opponents. yes, i am bound to have a soft spot for the more active way of faith, and yes my views have been influenced by tina beattie’s more provocative ‘the last supper according to martha and mary’, but this book’s emphasis on the transformative nature of friendship is perceptively developed. again, amy boucher pye draws me into territory i’m not terribly comfortable with   that of a personal friendship with jesus. my relationship with god finds more kinship with the poetry of r.s. thomas than the intimacy of st francis. however, this is another reason for a second reading. what really appealed to me is the prayer exercises. they are excellent, extremely well described, imaginative, challenging, achievable, full of variety and easy to make personal. i shall be taking these away on retreat with me to work through. finally, and some might this an odd comment, but the main text is set in an extremely attractive font that greatly added the ease of reading. 29. ‘snow’, john banville, faber, 9780571362707. a dark detective novel set in county wexford in the late 1950s which opens with the death of a catholic priest. this is a brutal murder, including mutilation, which takes place in a snowbound country house. the man sent to investigate grew up in a similar house, with an upbringing that puts him more at ease in these surroundings than his colleagues. the snow is relentless, whitening out the whole area, just as the authorities, especially those from the catholic church, wish to shade out everything to do with this crime. the writing is compelling, the plot unfolds messily and the conclusion is human, imperfect and all the more satisfying for that. 30. ‘the cat and the city’, nick bradley, atlantic books, 9781786499912. i’m missing my regular dose of murakami, and this has a similar feel, although it is interesting that other reviewers likened it to the work of david mitchell, who i have only just discovered. 31. ‘powsels and thrums’, alan garner, fourth estate, 9780008725211. a masterclass from a master of writing for whom language and landscape are coterminous, spirituality built into the rocks we stand upon, the woodlands we travel through and the very walls of our houses. you might say that this is writing about writing, but it is much more than that, shading in snippets of autobiography, fragments of poetry, criticism of critical theory, making connections through shards of language that reach across generations and millennia. in the glimpses into garner’s own life, we catch the reflection of a much bigger story, that of communities, communication and earthing. by earthing, i mean knowing, feeling, being, in tune with the land in which we move and from which we came. it is rootedness, something that garner has fought to nourish and deepen all his life, staying in the landscape he was born, buying and renovating a medieval house that stands on a site used by prehistoric people. in this context words, their local meanings and their development matter as they draw us back into our environment. however, academic literary elites have thrown their own layers of soil onto garner’s work, garnishing it with links and indebtedness to far flung global cultures. garner is having none of this   he knows where his ink was drawn from and is especially caustic towards french linguistic philosophers, who wished to dictate to him the source, flow and meaning of his own work. from a stone axe head to charles dodgson’s ‘jabberwocky’, from giraldus to alan turing, this is a book of remarkable bindings, that reminds us that when we loosen our ties with the earth of our birthing we lose, rather than gain, dimensions. 32. ‘making your church sustainable: a practical guide to getting to net zero’, nigel walter, canterbury press, 9781786224972. during winter, if you step inside any of the medieval churches i serve, within minutes your breath will mist, despite heating systems having been running for hours. nigel walter, a conservation architect with specialist experience in working with church communities, is also a licensed lay minister who understands all too well the pressures of limited resources, personnel and knowledge that hold back pccs from embarking on the challenging task of attempting to make ancient buildings cost effective and ecofriendly. beginning with a straightforward rationale as to why churches should endeavour to become more sustainable, the book sketches out a basic theological overview, placing some of the blame for ecological exploitation at the door of historical christian anthropocentrism, before offering contemporary readings of scripture that perceive a clear interrelatedness between god, humanity and non human creation. this leads into four general principles for church buildings: do your maintenance well; use electricity not fossil fuels for heating; allow the pattern of the building’s use to determine its heating solution; remember that what works in a home won’t necessarily be effective in a larger, older setting. to produce a suitable plan, we need to be able to understand what is on offer, and this is where the more detailed second part of the book really gains ground. simple, comprehensible explanations of a wide range of technologies clearly delineate their pros and cons for countless contexts. from types of heat pump to photovoltaic panels, varieties of battery to sources of water, much is covered concisely and instructively. once the right technology has been discerned, then you need to know who to work with and how to obtain the relevant permissions, all neatly explained in the final chapters. readable, realistic and packed with information highly relevant to the majority of the roughly 39,000 church communities in the uk, this accessible guide has a great deal to commend it. although costs will inevitably fluctuate and technologies develop rapidly, nevertheless there is something appropriate and achievable here for every church council or building committee who want to ask the right questions, make informed decisions and act sooner rather than later. 33. ‘the librarians of rue de picardie’, janet skeslien charles, headline, 9781035417902. in the 1980s wendy peterson, a new york librarian uncovers a box of archive material that offers clues to the life of jessie carson, known as kit, who, in 1918, left the new york public library to set up children’s libraries in the ravaged frontline region of france. as wendy unravels the history of jessie and the other women she worked for and with, so her own life begins to reshape, past traumas are confronted, her own writing begins to find its purpose and her dearest colleague potentially becomes her life partner. while wendy’s story is lightly interesting, it is kit’s that enchants. kit’s story is true. she was part of an organisation of american, british and canadian women who signed up to working full time, often unpaid in the most devastated areas of france, using their wisdom, ingenuity, skills and willingness to break boundaries to rebuild infrastructure, communities and to bring hope to shattered lives. it is a fascinating and little known aspect of the war and the pioneering women who shone in the service of humanity. 34. ‘chroma’, derek jarman, vintage, 9780099474913. like alan garner’s ‘powsels and thrums’ this is a book about connections, with poetry, classical writers, aids, art, film all in a mix hooked together by theories of colour   jarman’s and many others   pliny, leonardo, newton, etc.   that throw fresh light onto tints and shades. written towards the end of jarman’s life, when his sight was also disintegrating, it is utterly fascinating, compelling, challenging, emotional and hyper as it zips back and forth through subjects, time and the colour wheel. what we learn about colour is often subjective, but then we also see, or describe, colours differently. while jarman is focussed on the colours as they appear in the spectrum, there is also room for white, black and metallic hues, along with that most overlooked of colours, brown. when a prism splits white light into colours, then brown doesn’t appear, yet it contains the greatest number of shades, and is integral to the earth. this is a booked that is, itself, earthed, not simply in the colours of life, but in the ultrarealism that approaching death sometimes endows a very few perceptive and receptive people. a bumper year for music listening, which began with 130 albums recommended by gramophone magazine in 2023. that gave me a penchant for listening to liszt, and threw up many delights, plus a few challenges. the proms season was stunning with great variety and depth. i think i missed four concerts and actually managed to attend one, a performance by the para orchestra of mozart, symphony 40, in bristol, which was exhilarating. some of the concerts were so good i heard them at least twice. meanwhile, it was a bumper year at glastonbury. i only caught (via the bbc) 29 gigs, some of which, including kim gordon, pj harvey, heilung and mdou moctar, were approaching the sublime. which may not have given me much time to listen to any new music, but somehow i managed 203 albums (including a handful of eps). this may have been more, however neil young returned his music to a certain streaming service, and i found that there were many hours to catch up on, which was a satisfying rabbit hole to jump down. of those 203 new albums, i note that 24 of them were also in the guardian’s top 50 for 2024, which gives some indication of my proclivities. as usual, i have scored each record out of 5 and this year have listed them alphabetically by ranking. either my critical ear is mellowing, or there really were some amazing albums this year, with 21 hitting full marks, and another 70 that came close. strange how you can wait many years for music about amelia earhart, then in 2024 two albums are released, almost at once (laurie anderson and public service broadcasting). of those top scoring 21 there is much to say. several of them have been on repeat, including the roedelius overview, which is 3 hours long. godspeed you! gave me another dose of no wave, but with added commentary on the seeming indifference of the world to the destruction of palestine. sarah davachi never disappoints and there were other musicians in this list who moved through drone with mesmeric skill, holding my attention from beginning to end. kali malone, kelly moran and alva noto have soundtracked many a sermon writing session this year. the unthanks in winter is a glorious december collection perfect for advent listening, and which i paired with sonnets by malcolm guite on the ‘o’ antiphons for a seasonal meditation. the collection of japanese ambient explorations from 1993 1999 defies description, yet was exceptionally vivid, but the real discovery for me was david lynch and chrystabell’s collaboration. this is entrancing, and sent me back to explore, over and again, their back catalogue. elsewhere, of the big names, thurston moore was mildly disappointing (for once) and kim gordon didn’t quite reach the abrasive perfection of her first solo album, while nick cave was almost spot on, showing further evolution from ghosteen of his more elliptical, potentially mystical (in an apophatic sense) composing. on the other hand, alan vega and beth gibbons both gave something crucial while the cure and the jesus and mary chain produced solidly entertaining and shimmering albums, and it was great to hear the coruscating fire of the the again. indeed, there is much on this list that i would love to listen to again (as well as a few i wish to forget), however, 2025 has blown in and so it is time to check out the depth and variety of the newest releases. once again a surfeit of riches, music overflowing throughout each day, and as ever it is tough to pick out stand out winners. this time i have laid out my list of new album listening by my grading (out of five), then alphabetically. this gives a top 32, with seven albums achieving the full five stars. the sonic youth live recording was quite simply an almost perfect snapshot of one of the most innovative, maverick and influential bands at its gloriously twisted peak. pj harvey reinvented herself again, with an album that pushed her vocally and sang with a hard won maturity, while both julie byrne and the hunteress/laura cannell collaboration reinforced the dominance of women as the makers of the most original, invigorating and challenging music for our times. øxn offered a compelling mix of desolate folk and scandi noir, tatsuro murakami’s ‘an imaginary autumn’ perfectly caught the tone of the season and was my go to album for the third quarter of the year, while dobrinka tabakova was a new composer to me whose music i found utterly captivating. from the longer list of albums i gave 4.5 stars, all of which are worth several spins, there are a few honourable mentions. firstly, swans   i cannot let a swans release go by without comment. it was the only album i bought on cd this year, and is distinct game of two halves, with disc one slightly disappointing, being a touch too tame and predictable   worthy of four stars   while disc two is absolutely blindingly vintage swans, with all the drone deep ire i could wish for. if christine and the queens score was based on their absolutely overwhelming glastonbury performance, then they would be a five, but the recorded album just didn’t quite reach the heights of that live set. sarah davachi is always worth listening to, and with three albums out this year, there was a surfeit of delight, but nothing that quite hit the top spot, although this won’t stop me listening to them over and again. the richter ensemble’s pairing of bach’s ‘the art of fugue’ with webern’s complete published string quartets was utterly inspired   a wonderful conjunction that enriched my understanding of both composers. hopefully, there is something of everyone in this list   pick and choose at your pleasure and happy listening for 2024. i thought i was doing better this year, with 30 books read, but then look back and see that this is still two less than 2022. the first book i read, nick cave’s ‘faith, hope and carnage’ spawned a talk to clergy about the questions cave asks about faith, as well as about creativity and divinity. unfortunately, i was talking to the wrong group, as only one of them had heard of cave, let alone heard any of his music, and they couldn’t seem to see any connection between creativity and ministry. which takes me straight to some of the art books i read in 2023. lachlan goudie’s ‘the story of scottish art’ was a visual and literary treat, bringing out of the mists many artists i either hadn’t heard of or knew very little about, and ‘pyramids in england: paul nash and the wittenham clumps’ was interesting, but slight, with few real insights. it was the two andy friend volumes, ‘ravilious and co’ and ‘john nash: the landscape of love and solace’, that really impressed, opening a fresh perspective on early and mid twentieth century british art, which he peopled with a much wider range of innovative and talented artists   many of them women   than standard art histories of the period. finishing the year with henry moore’s shelter drawings, read while the news was bloodied by the horrific slaughter in gaza, grounded art in the prophetic, the political and the emotional. on the music front, apart from cave’s immensely inspiring book, the stand out was ‘monolithic undertow’, harry swords’ detailed, but not exhaustive, delve into the history, and pre history, of drone. warren ellis’ ‘nina simone’s gum’ takes us from music to the visual arts in a witty but also intense and tangentially autobiographical way, which often mirrored, sometimes contradicted, cave’s musing. meanwhile, fiction was mostly mediocre   a reminder of the quality of ‘the power and the glory’, although ‘for thy great pain have mercy on my little pain’, was a thoughtful and intriguing description of the meeting between two medieval mystics, dame julian of norwich and margery kempe, seen through the lens of contemporary feminism. ‘hamnet’ was the one exception, a romp through shakespearean stratford upon avon with much pain at its heart, vividly brought to life   much better than the play version we also saw this year. meanwhile, religious writing, the stand out being the one book that wouldn’t be found in many conventional christian bookshops, ‘lifescapes’ by ann wroe, which has all the makings of a quiet, deeply personal and intensely perceptive spiritual classic. finally, the most intriguing, unusual and perhaps even most grounded book of the year was ‘hollow places’, which scratches deep under the surface of the landscape which upholds us. 1. ‘faith, hope and carnage’, nick cave and seán o’hagan, canongate, 9781838857660. throughout this book i kept nodding my head and shouting   mainly to myself   ‘yes’, yes, i’ve been saying this for years’. two decades ago, i wrote a short dissertation on the spirituality of post punk music which nick cave featured. i’ve always seen a strong dialogue with the divine in cave’s work. he can be scurrilous, scabrous, visceral, profane, but also elegiac, truthful, searching, delicate, vulnerable and utterly beautiful. cave is possibly the most theologically astute artist recording and writing today (michael gira being the most liturgically wired in), with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the hebrew scriptures and a deep interest in the life, teaching and personality of jesus. he’s not a conventional christian (who is, or should ever be ‘conventional’, and what is that anyway?), but he does ask perceptive, pressing and awkward questions about the nature of reality, the possibilities of divine existence and the human condition. he also seems to be looking, asking and open. seán o’hagan is a music writer who i first encountered in the 80s (i think), when he wrote for the nme. this was when nme was a fierce, radical, politically engaged weekly tabloid format music paper, with a host of angry, sometimes cocksure, but often imaginative and curious writers. o’hagan is described as a lapsed catholic. he understands what cave means when he talks about things of the spirit, he is not afraid to unpack and scrabble around inside some of this baggage. he and cave share a similar language in many areas and his questions turn their extended discussions into a book length conversation that offers plenty of intimations of meaning with regard to cave’s work, but also open up many more questions for the reader to explore. there is a real rapport between the two. the conversations take place with the pandemic as their backdrop, and the death of one of nick cave’s 15 year old twins, arthur, in 2015 shadowing every page. during the course of these discussions cave’s mother dies in australia, but he is unable to attend her funeral due to covid travel restrictions. as o’hagan was putting the book together, jethro, cave’s thirty year old son from a former relationship died in australia. cave talks often about another previous partner, anita lane, who also died during the pandemic. grief and bereavement are most certainly deeply soaking cave’s reflections, and it might be argued that they are catalysts for his spiritual searching, but that would be simplistic. these are elements that have always been swirling through his art and he has been forever unpicking and remaking the complexity of living, of being. his recent music has moved away from a roughly linear storytelling, character developing, style to something more impressionistic, fragmentary and mosaic, that explores intense emotions and deeper matters with an elegiac and meditative intensity. this is echoed by some of the authors he quotes in the book, such as marilynne robinson and cynthia bourgeault, theologians who refuse to reduce faith to soundbites, who plunge into the intricacy of belief and being with generosity but without compromise. robinson’s gilead quartet and bourgeault’s explorations of non dualistic christianity share something of cave’s refusal to bow to reductionism. cave also mentions john of the cross, whose poetry has much in common with the songwriter’s statement that ‘any true love song is a song for god’. these conversations ramble, like any good chat between friends should, sparking ideas off each other, telling tales and offering moments of intimacy. they breathe with a spirit of exploration and openness and they offer hope in creativity, in the endless capacity of humanity for discovery and invention, and, but perhaps i’m showing my own bias here, they are redolent with the hope that comes from mystery, from leaving behind reductionist rationalism, from letting open the windows of the soul and allowing space for something other to be glimpsed. 2. re read ‘the collage of god’, mark oakley, dlt, 9870232523592. faith is complex, life is complex, poetry explores it better than biblical literalism and enlightenment rationalism. in its own way this slim little book covers much the same territory as cave/o’hagan, giving space for faith to be messy, colourful, personal, slippery and vivacious. 3. ‘pyramids in england: paul nash and the wittenham clumps’, christopher baines, bank lane, 9781527277069. a well produced, beautifully illustrated slim essay on the ancient british camp and wooded double hill in oxfordshire that was immensely inspirational for the artist paul nash throughout his short career. it is an enjoyable book, colouring in a little of nash’s short life and his enduring marriage to margaret and his numerous other relationships. the wittenham clumps weave in and out of the story, sometimes in close up, but often through the lens of a pair of field glasses. the trouble is there isn’t enough of the clumps. what i was looking for was analysis of nash’s relationship with the land, his instinct for genius loci, his indebtedness to samuel palmer, the differences between his conception of place and that of john nash, perhaps even relating this to ronald blythe’s groundedness in place. the spiritual connection with the clumps   their history, their position in the landscape, their actual meaning for nash (meanings). the nearest we get is the title   pyramids in england   which alludes to both nash’s propensity to add pyramids to some of his land or seascapes and the mystical properties of the clumps. there is more to tease out here, however, despite my not finding what i was looking for, this is still and enjoyable book. 4. ‘hamnet’, maggie o’farrell, tinder press, 9781472223821. a romp, but one you know won’t end well, through the sights, sounds and smells of late tudor england. focussed mainly on stratford upon avon, but with occasional forays into theatrical london, this is the story of a family broken open by the death of the beloved son, a twin. because the family is that of william shakespeare, we are aware from the start that it is his son, hamnet, who will die, and so we are left without the surprise of a plot twist. despite that, the novel builds pained, laughing, complex characters out of the family and their houses. it is a quick read, full of colour, leaving a space for the playwright to inhabit, but letting his wife and children, parents and mother in law breathe for themselves. the focus is on them, especially wife agnes, and the great writer becomes just one force in a bigger story. the trouble with this book, and it is not the author’s fault, is ‘upstart crow’. the tv series has portrayed each of the family members so vividly that it is hard to get past their comedic characterisation. for john shakespeare this is particularly problematic, as harry enfield reduces him to a caustically comic buffoon, when the book portrays him as a vicious, bullying, talented but wayward glover, who has alienated himself from the town and in doing so damaged the prospects for his family. the bard, as elder son, is out of kilter with his father, and with the family firm. father thinks he’ll come to nothing, but he does: in his own way in london he restores the family’s fortunes, if not their standing. but, he is only able to do this because of his wife. agnes has the strength of personality and the wisdom to let him go, to find his own way. she is the centre point of the novel   a wise woman, with an understanding of human nature and the natural world that is deeply woven into her soul. however, even her knowledge that can cure others, her compassion for their lives and her confidence that keeps her one step ahead of both her stepmother and her father in law cannot stop her son from dying, with the consequent ripping open of her heart. 5. ‘affirmative: why you can say yes to the bible and yes to people who are lgbtqi+’, jonathan tallon, richardson jones press, 9781739261610. this little book has a great deal of scholarship behind it (outlined in a well written appendix that gives pros and cons for the academic work tallon is engaging with), but is written clearly and readably, presenting its arguments with minimum fuss and maximum impact. tallon is an evangelical christian disturbed by the superficial quality of much of the biblical analysis (on both sides, but most often from those who are non affirming) regarding monogamous, committed same sex relationships and transgender matters. with clarity he explores the key scriptural texts that are used to ‘prove’ that same sex relationships are condemned by god. what comes through clearly is that what the bible is discussing or describing is not equivalent with today’s relationships or understanding of what it is to be human. it is a short, swift read, full of exegetical insight, but, like everything else written on this subject, is going to have a tough time breaking down entrenched positions. 6. ‘the story of scottish art’, lachlan goudie, thames & hudson, 9780500296950. in 2015 lachlan goudie presented an extremely interesting and well thought through bbc tv series on the story of scottish art. this book is even better, containing far more detail, a greater range of artists and a generous selection of pictures, including goudie’s own, used to counterpoint historical depictions of scotland with a more contemporary view. the story is told in linear fashion with focus on individual artists and sometimes localised movements. while bringing the artists to life it also fleshes out the history of the country, its internal tensions and its fractious relationship with england. yes, i would have liked more on wilhelmina barns graham, but you can’t have everything and really, this was a dream of a read from start to finish, informative, entertaining, enlightening, sometimes surprising and full of inventiveness, talent and variety. scottish art is far more than dour chieftains and monumental, rain soaked scenery. 7. ‘ravilious and co’, andy friend, thames & hudson, 9780500296769. the ‘and co’ of this title is fascinating, a community of mid twentieth century british artists, many of whom were well known at the time, but have slipped from the pantheon. their lives are framed around that of eric ravilious and his wife tirzah garwood. many of the artists were women, some, such as enid marx, were also first class designers, whose work you will have seen, but may not have recognised. the text flows brightly drawing you along and through tangled creative lives, the illustrations are illuminating, sometimes quite surprising and there is a huge amount of information here, which makes for fascinating, refreshing reading. 8. ‘godforsaken’, stephen cottrell, hodder & stoughton, 9781399805247. a good book for holy week as it focuses on the cross, looked at through jesus’ last words. i will read it again, however, i was underwhelmed. this isn’t the best of cottrell’s holy week books, ‘the things he carried’ contains far more original insights, imagery and language. 9. ‘for thy great pain have mercy on my little pain’, victoria mackenzie, bloomsbury, 9781526647887. lovely, and far too short. an imagining of the meeting between anchoress julian of norwich in her cell and the wandering mystic margery kempe. the contrasts and similarities between these two faithful, mystical and prophetic women are sharply drawn, with equal sympathy for each. at first glance julian is the passive one and kempe the active, but julian showed a great active presence to become an anchoress, and while calmly centred she is never less than lively. kempe practices her disruptive faith out in the world, challenging the views, and patience, of her contemporaries with her bubbling outpourings of tears and prophecy. both women tread a difficult route in a masculine world, each of them courting clerical disapproval. 10. ‘the bookman’s tale’, ronald blythe, canterbury press, 9781853119804. 11. ‘divine landscapes’, ronald blythe, harcourt brace jovanovich, 0151257469. ‘the bookman’s tale’ is another of the collection of blythe’s church time columns and, as always, it fizzes with insight, connections and a deep rooted understanding of land and locality. blythe was a master writer, widely read, who had many interests and knew many of the most important creative folk of the last 80 years, all of which mixes in with a profound knowledge of his faith, of the church year, of botany and matters of the earth. ‘divine landscapes’ tours the uk linking writers to the countryside of their of their birth and their lives. weaving literary and artistic connections, blythe shows how the land influenced each, while also drawing out spiritual resonances between place, person and their work. criss crossing the country and literature it opens up a whole new world of understanding, grounding the writers, but setting their work free, and letting their faith permeate everything. 12. ‘the nature of somerset’s coast’, nigel phillips, pisces publications, 9781913994037. when you think of somerset the coast doesn’t often come to mind. there’s the levels, glastonbury tor, the mendips, the quantocks, cheddar gorge, but not the coast. yet the 64 miles of somerset coastline that spans from portishead down to porlock is a fascinating mixture of cliffs, dunes, temperate rain forest and shingle. nestling on the edge of the severn estuary and the bristol channel, it is sometimes not seen as a real coastline, but it is an amazingly rich and varied habitat home to a surprising array of flora and fauna. nigel phillip’s extensively illustrated a4 format hardback opens with a brief history of the area with important information on the geography of the coast, before chapter by chapter, exploring each of the different genera and families to be found there, highlighting interesting or unusual species. a thorough copy edit and more stringent proofing would have improved it no end, but despite some irritating little errors (including one repeated picture caption, and a deliberately repeated bullet point that contains the same mistake each time) this is a very valuable book to read, which gives useful pointers as to which might be the best areas of somerset coastline to visit at given times of year if you are looking for certain types of plant or creature. 13. ‘nina simone’s gum’, warren ellis, faber, 9780571365630. warren ellis has worked with nick cave for 30 years and is an immensely creative artist, violinist and multi instrumentalist. the story of how he grabbed the gum nina simone stuck to a piano at the start of a gig curated by cave, and how that piece of tacky sweet, wrapped in a towel used by simone, then contained in a tower records bag, became a totemic talisman and museum exhibit is also a tale of lives twisting in and through a post punk world. little things matter in ellis’s world. he may not always know why, it may take many years, journeys and adventures for them to reveal their luminescence, but ellis holds on to them and holds on to the possibility of truth he might find in, or through them. like cave’s own recent book ‘faith, hope and carnage’ at its heart is the creative process and how it plays out in myriad different ways for each artist. it is also part memoir, part eulogy to nina simone and partly a tale of transcendence. 14. ‘the left handed booksellers of london’, garth nix, gollancz, 9781473227781. a fantasy romp involving the old gods of england and microfiche reading booksellers with supernatural powers. set in an alternative version of 1983, where women were already allowed to be vicars, the story sort of revolves around a young woman, about to go to college who is searching for the father she has never met, and who her mother doesn’t seem to remember. it quickly spirals out into a race for a bronze cauldron and the uncovering of a bent copper at the met. not enough bookselling for my taste. 15. ‘unknown pleasures’, peter hook, simon & schuster, 9781471141669. joy division bass player hook’s view on the turbulence of life in the band. it is funny, silly, sad and exhilarating. hook parted company with new order over 15 years ago and sadly the rancour is still at large among the whole crew. it rises here, despite not being, essentially, part of this journey. hook doesn’t demystify jd, many others have done that already, notably deborah curtis in ‘touching from a distance’, but he does underscore the naivety of the band and their inability to take seriously ian curtis’s illness, or, at the time, the depth and quality of his lyric writing. hook admits his own culpability and shows how the hard graft of a band driven to make it in a crowded market took its toll on all of them. it is a badly edited, and copy edited book, but maybe that doesn’t matter as the mistakes add to the home made feel of the story. curtis’s death was terrible, jd made some awful mistakes and yet they also retained their integrity and gifted the world with a modest cache of incredible music. 16. ‘monolithic undertow’, harry sword, white rabbit, 9781474615259. subtitled ‘in search of sonic oblivion’ this history of drone is generally uplifting, constantly informative, although occasionally drowning in its own gravitas. but, then it can be forgiven that   it is trying to describe something that is indescribable, think of dante’s struggle to create a sufficiently vivid picture of heaven in ‘paradiso’. the author’s wrestling with putting the wordless into words produces its own meaning. harry sword sensuously unlocks for us a vast sonic universe. we open with the cosmic, with drone as the music of prehistory and we become more aware of the hum that insidiously bass lines our lives in various often man made, frequently electronic. explorations of the possibility of drone being the music of early humanity set us up to wander across the ritual sounds of world religions. there is a significant lacuna in this section, which i will return to, but, again, this is fascinating, it tightens the strings between sound and the spirit, then we spring rapidly into modern and contemporary music. here it helps that i had heard of more than 60% of the artists discussed and had heard around half of them. there is much to learn and even more to listen to. terry riley, john cale and la monte young tiptoe us around the more muscular edges of minimalism and lead us into a bloody mass of sixties bands, then through hawkwind into the seventies and on. some of the directions we twist in are darkly arcane, rustic ritualism throating gore and cream tea shamanism. others are caves of sound that swell and rise with the sibilance of petulant genii loci. then there is the miasma of muck that humanity slaps across the earth’s crust. i thought at first that my beloved swans were going to be dismissed as coffee table drone lite, but, thankfully, there was appreciation of michael gira’s snaking path of development from the brutal hammering of the filth y early 1980s, when i first encountered them, through to the absorption of the eternal feminine in the jarboe years, then on to the shimmering liturgy of ‘the seer’ towards today’s luminous velocity and violence. but there’s so much more here, with sun o))) being gorgeously eviscerated and earth’s lava flow of sound grainily induced. we also un coil into the urban drone of techno and splinter into a myriad of experimentalist evocations of city life before almost closing the circling with another of my ‘go to’ artists, sarah davachi, whose unwinding sounds freighted with agelessness often soundtrack my days. but the circle is not closed, partly because the life of drone is still unrolling and partly because of that earlier noted lacuna. there is nothing substantial, the barest flicker of a mention, of the role of drone in western religious music, yet the mesmeric in christian liturgy is sister to the apophatic way of the mystics, a key underpinning of the deepest modes of faith. and this means that perhaps the greatest woman, hildegard von bingen   the first named composer, abbess, founder of the natural sciences in germany, medic, mystic, artist, consultant to the powerbrokers of europe, writer of the first opera   is completely elided from the scene. drone, in hildegard’s music is both a grounding force and the bass note through which the mind may pass, where the veil dividing the divine and the earthly is sundered. in all its glorious variety, perhaps this is the universal language and the universal goal of the monolithic undertow. re read. 17. ‘the power and the glory’, graham greene, penguin, 9780140184990. still good, still dark, still comic and affecting and sad and a tale of jonah. 18. ‘have a little faith’, kate bottley, penguin, 9780241605660, £18.99. part testimony, fizzing through a catalogue of mildly self deprecating anecdotes, part a series of life lessons, this first book from kate bottley is unlikely to win over anyone who isn’t already in tune with her effervescent media persona, but her energy and chatty, sometimes giggly, occasionally lightly saucy, style allow her to open up conversations, potentially connecting with those who might not normally consider that the christian faith, or the church, has anything positive to offer them. the author’s encounter with someone who asks, ‘what’s a bishop?’, reminds us that the christian world church times’ readers inhabit daily is not even a blip on the radar in most people’s lives. however, a little faith can indeed go a long way, so after initially placing herself soundly in the context of her own upbringing, belief, priestly vocation and media ministry, kate bottley gets straight down to addressing topics such as success, love, strength, conflict, confidence, loneliness and grief. through vivid stories, her own collection of celebrity encounters and faux pas, quiet insight and a gently persistent love of christ, she challenges preconceptions, strips out ‘churchy’ language and attempts to show how even the slenderest thread of belief can be beneficial when it comes to dealing with the muck and mess of life. although some of us in parochial ministry (described here as ‘old school vicars’) may squirm a little at bottley’s lithe discussion of individual success, beginning with her own appearances in the tv series gogglebox among other media engagements, there are many aspects of the book, including the ‘three good things’ to think about or do at the end of each chapter, that are practical, thoughtful and encouraging. the chapter on confidence feels, at times, to be the most personally revealing, while those on loneliness and grief are reassuringly compassionate. throughout, bottley explains how her faith has developed to become more inclusive and questioning, and shares her frustrations with a church that sometimes feels infernally clueless, needlessly exclusive and increasingly irrelevant. what a shame that the large print hardback format favoured by the publishers and the hefty price of £18.99 may well cut against the book’s appeal to the casually curious seeker or reader; a slimmer, more affordable paperback would have made this an excellent book to give away, use as the basis of a marriage preparation course or as a discussion starter on the pressing topics it tackles. 19. ‘steeple chasing: around britain by church’, peter ross, headline, 9781472281920. this is a book about buildings that is really about people (and cats). it isn’t a guide to the most beautiful, interesting or quirky churches in britain. rather it is a tour through the landscape of christian faith, in all its many layers, some crumbling, some almost invisible, some raw and cracked and in flux. ross is a good companion on the way, observant, articulate, curious, ready to sit back and listen. he sweeps across scotland and england with forays into wales and northern ireland, covering an eclectic range of subjects including church cats and bats, holy shrines (and secular ones), pearly monarchs, wall paintings, stanley spencer at burghclere, sheela na gigs and much more. he showers us with details, but also takes time to sit back and be, to take in the space and the moment, to hear the stories of the stones. as he travels, so he meets a great cloud of witnesses, some from the past   builders, saints, guardians, ministers   and some from today, the builders, saints, guardians, ministers whose stories are still being woven into those of the buildings they attend and care for. in all buildings, landscapes, communities and individuals meld together into a living tapestry of life, of faith, of a society that might be fading into the past, or whose time is still to come. 20. ‘lifescapes’, ann wroe, jonathan cape, 9781787334458. ann wroe, obituarist for the economist and biographer of, among others, shelley, st francis and pontius pilate, has written a gentle, probing, perceptive book of great luminosity. her graceful, measured writing, patient observation, extensive literary remembrance and understated catholic faith bring to mind ronald blythe’s earthed elegance. but where blythe’s trajectory often seemed to move from landscape to people to the divine, wroe’s arcs from people through their environment, to god in us. her starting point is a collection of her poems about individuals, round which she has enamelled miniature portraits which reveal rather than capture something essential about each life. she begins with the obituary for a much caught carp, likening her work to the catching of souls, a phrase that feels too coarse for the subtle way she illuminates a dazzle of iridescence that others miss, the intensity of the individual often airbrushed out by the public gaze. like dante, who feels ever present in the book, she is able, with a few precise words, to bring complex, contradictory characters vividly to life, but she does so with the same spiritual generosity as marilynne robinson, the interiority of g.m. hopkins and the restless searching of shelley. with fish like slipperiness the soul she seeks always lies in slightly deeper waters; just a flash and a glance caught on each page. bit by bit those halcyon glimpses build, through the tiny details of lives both public   aretha franklin and seamus heaney   and private   qusai abtini, a teenager shot by a sniper in the siege of aleppo, marie smith, the last speaker of the eyak language   into a shimmer of something other. while honouring many diverse lives with deep generosity, she also displays quiet attentiveness to stories of the soul proffered by faiths other than her own, weaving them together not to ‘solve the great mystery’, as shelley once put it, but to illuminate one aspect of it. that is connectedness, the tight threads spinning around the world, through time, which draw rumi, bob marley, rilke, a red balloon, a goshawk, brother roger, an indian cyclist, a medieval treasurer and a great cloud of witnesses, into the same eternity and the same present. by refusing to pin down the soul in this precisely faceted gem of a spiritual classic, wroe has given our own fresh wings to search for, and be met with, immanuel. 21. ‘murder in the parish’, richard coles, weidenfeld and nicholson, 9781474612678. why do i do it? after reading the first of these clerical detective novels, i vowed not to trouble myself with them again. however, i was once more lured in by a 99p e reader offer. and no, the second instalment wasn’t any better than the first. if anything, it was worse   the plot thinner, the characters flatter, the social setting toylike, the denouement deflated. doom scrolling might have been a better use of my downtime. 22. ‘hollow places: an unusual history of land and legend’, christopher hadley, william collins, 9780008319472. this is one of those books that scoots off in a different direction with each chapter, and although there is a incremental progression of its central strand, there is no full resolution, but much exhilaration as a variety of lines of inquiry blossom into richer knowledge of time and place. by digging into the origins and variations of a hertfordshire legend concerning a dragon’s lair nestling under the roots of an ancient hedge side yew and the grave of dragon slaying giant built into the wall of a nearby church, we are sent out exploring the development of field names, burial practices to cheat the devil, the history of local ruling families along with their feuds and much more. piers shonks, the buried giant, proves to be a shapeshifting talisman saving the local folk from changing threats at different times in village history, while the dragon and even the yew tree prove even more amorphous. manuscript margins flesh out shonks and his descendants as independent men, yet all the while he retains a hint of genius loci, his spirit imbuing the landscape with mystery and energy that forever hovers at the edges of memory. i loved this book, it offered many hints of connections with the land that over the industrial centuries are being quietly erased from our consciousness. 23. ‘john nash: the landscape of love and solace’, andy friend, thames & hudson, 9780500022900. the second andy friend book of the year, with some overlap of time and people, which gave continuity with the some of the same views seen from different angles. vibrant writing and careful research that superbly illuminated the lives of john nash and his wife christine, while not making too much of their open relationship and multiple partner. nash’s art stood out strongly against a backdrop of biographical detail, clearly showing him to be the greatest british landscape artist of his generation, covering a broader span of england and wales than his common identification with suffolk suggests. nash was also immensely versatile, with a marked sense of humour, a long teaching career and prolific success as an illustrator. but in his league table of loves gardening/botany came first, followed by fishing and only then art. i tore through this book, enjoying it immensely, enthralled by nash’s work, which cumulatively has greater, if less showy, impact than that of his brother paul. 24. ‘the black tower’, p.d. james, faber & faber, 9780571350810. it has been years since i read an adam dalgliesh novel, and this one did not disappoint, with a claustrophobic dorset setting, a collection of nasty murders, some lively plotting and a satisfying conclusion. 25. ‘graham sutherland: inspirations’, rosalind thuillier, lutterworth press, 0718825446. rosalind thuillier was an artist and author who was married to gilbert adams, a professional photographer, whose photographs illustrate many of the themes of this book. thuillier knew sutherland and spent time with him, especially in pembrokeshire. the influence of pembrokeshire on sutherland’s work threads right through this book, from his early explosive and innovative landscapes, to his focussing down onto geological and botanical minutiae   adams photographs putting these details into clear context   that then bled into his religious and portrait work before re emerging in his later years in fresh, but less vital landscapes. a fascinating book told with an artist’s eye and much understanding. 26. ‘thrive: helping your multi parish benefice to grow’, pam macnaughton, church house publishing, 9781781404324. are multi parish benefices (mpbs) simply a matter of expediency, a way of marshalling diminishing personnel and finances while maintaining the illusion of a functioning parish system, or can they provide a way of unlocking more of the potential of small, disparate congregations to become a joyfully energised priesthood of all believers? pam macnaughton believes the latter and, for nearly a decade, has been developing thrive as a suite of resources, available via cpas, to enable parishes to journey together, telling their stories, asking hard questions about their priorities and practices while mapping out and enacting a shared future. this book, which lays out the rationale for, and an overview of, the thrive resources − all thoroughly road tested by macnaughton and cpas − will be the starting point for benefices to evaluate whether its approach is appropriate for their context. it continually refers to the associated thrive materials (a printed prayer guide, downloadable course and pcc sessions) which comprise a systematic programme of discernment. however, in the twelve short chapters of the book, each including perceptive questions and real life examples of the principles in action, there is a mine of material to get mpbs thinking, even if they don’t wish to buy into the whole package. the introduction acknowledges the difficulty of change, especially for those trained for a specific model of ministry but champions its necessity if burnout and the complete withdrawal of the church from neighbourhoods are to be avoided. from there it moves on to initiate an ever rolling cycle of exploring, planning, acting and reviewing, based around six main themes: prayer; telling our stories; refreshing leadership; reinvigorating discipleship; sharing faith; and discerning future direction. these are neatly illustrated as a five pointed star featuring prayer at the centre while each of the other themes radiates from an arm. the accompanying thrive prayer guide reinforces the centrality of prayer at every stage of the process. my own experience in a recently reshaped mpb supports the profound benefits the thrive programme’s focus upon fostering benefice wide engagement can bring, especially provision of formal space for sharing each parish’s story, not as a way of remaining enmeshed in the past, but to gain fuller understanding of mutual starting points, the differences and similarities. of course, there remains the issue of encouraging overworked church members to engage with yet another series of meetings (hence the value of the accompanying pcc sessions), finance is not tackled, and i would have welcomed some input into the benefits, or otherwise, of moving to a multi church single parish model. despite these caveats, however, there is much to commend this material to benefices wishing to embrace their diversity, enhance their mutual support and flourish together through a shared vision. 27. ‘an advent book of days’, gregory k. cameron, canterbury press, 9781786222688. an advent calendar (+1) of character studies, with accompanying illustrations by the author, exploring the different folk who turn up in the both the biblical and traditional nativity stories. a slight book with only a flicker of reflective interest. 28. ‘the last devil to die’, richard osman, penguin books ltd, 9780241512449. i’m not sure why i read this (except that it was free)   it’s the third one of this thursday murder club series that i have got through and it seems to be a prime example of the law of diminishing returns with respect to characters and plot, although that is belied by the volume of sales. if you are thinking of reading this   or giving it to someone you love, please reconsider. there is so much that is much better out there. 29. ‘a bird in winter’, louise doughty’, faber & faber, 9780571322176. not sure what drew me to this   probably the title and the blurb describing a middle aged (in her early 50s   seems way past middle age to me) woman disappearing into a new life. i hadn’t picked up that this was a spy thriller. the thriller part was so so, however the character of heather (or ‘bird’) was intriguing, complex and attractive, so much so that i ripped through the novel and thoroughly enjoyed it. 30. ‘blitz and blockade: henry moore at the hermitage’, henry moore foundation/state hermitage museum, 9781906257071. the essays in this catalogue of a 2011 exhibition at the hermitage museum clearly argue for the importance of moore’s 1940 1 work as a war artist had on his development, and especially on his sculptures. in particular moore’s drawings of londoners trying to find rest and safety in tube stations and bomb shelters during the blitz produced images that resonated throughout his work. at the time moore was aware that so many of the figures he encountered mirrored or replicated the sculptural forms that he was already creating. of course, it would have been voyeuristic and insensitive of him to sit in these shelters drawing people, so he didn’t. rather, he quickly jotted down notes of poses, images, shadows, etc., that he wished to remember then produced volumes of sketches back at his studio home. these generally comprised of a swiftly pencilled in basic image, overlaid with wax crayon, which was in turn painted over with watercolours, then scraped back, with the addition of pen and ink, or sometimes pastel. it was a complicated process, that had sculptural elements, but created drawings with great immediacy, heightened atmosphere while catching both the solidity and the vulnerability of sheltering citizens. the second half of the book juxtaposes with moore’s shelter drawings the work architect alexander nikolsky produced also during the second war, documenting the use of the hermitage museum itself as an air raid shelter while leningrad was under attack. the german switch of focus towards invading russia meant that the london blitz was dramatically curtailed, so providing much relief to the tube station sheltering folk of moore’s drawings. nikolsky provides reportage while moore’s work writhes with the torment, energy, survival instincts of civilians trapped and helpless, waiting out the violence that rages over and around them. too little read, but some marvellous volumes in the mix. the most satisfying were both published by thames & hudson: frances spalding’s ‘the real and the romantic’ and christopher neve’s ‘unquiet landscape’. there was significant overlap in each   spalding writing about british art between the wars, neve focussed on british artistic responses to the landscape   and both were beautifully written, expecting the reader to do so work, but providing much fresh insights interestingly revealed. the two books by richard coles couldn’t have been more different. his exploration of grief, following the death of his partner offers valuable, very personal, insights and could be beneficial reading for many. his clerical detective fiction novel was hampered by a light plot and writing that was either not trying at all or trying too hard. it was wonderful to read again a clutch of novels by both alan garner and chaim potok. both deal with mystery, the other, place and community and both are written with surety and intelligence. it feels as if their work has been wrung out of them, but they have different ways of expressing the intimacy of their work   garner’s prose is lean, every word pared to necessity, while potok is expansive, working in circles that draw and ever more detailed web of divine and human connections. below is the full list with reviews   some extensive, some very brief. 1. the tyseley story, michael whitehouse, lightmoor press, 9781899889924. being born and brought up in hall green, birmingham, tyseley was only three stops away on the local line into the city centre. dad, being a lifelong railway enthusiast and childhood train spotter (although from lner served haunts), regularly took me to tyseley’s birmingham railway museum open days back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. while dad loved any steam locomotives he was always keen to impress upon me the pre eminence of gresley’s engineering. however, tyseley locomotive shed revealed the brunswick green (or br equivalent) copper capped elegance of gwr tapered boilers and i was hooked. i never knew the gwr in its pre nationalisation glory, or even steam in br days, but those were the locomotives, that was the railway company that caught my imagination. then, years later, when i learnt about the broad gauge and the beauty of brunel’s (gooch’s, dean’s) single driving wheel expresses i was totally smitten. strong memories remain of those early open days. a mass of men in gaberdine overcoats, suits and ties, carrying 35mm cameras on leather straps. the ground crunching with black coal, or clinker. the smell of oil mixed with steam. stands selling railwayana with steam organs, fairground rides and traction engines at every turn. men proudly oiling 5” gauge models, and me riding on open coaches on elevated circuits of track. and, of course, the locomotives. prints of clun castle and kolaphur graced my walls for years. i remember seeing bishop eric treacey on the footplate of the black five locomotive named after him. if an anglican bishop was endorsing this love of steam then i, as a devout altar boy, had the perfect excuse to be faithful to two religions. then there was the day sir nigel gresley (or was it mallard?) was scheduled to run past at speed on the mainline and we, along with a great cloud of like minded witnesses high tailed it down to the locomotive works to try, with small cameras and no zoom lenses, to capture this streak of blue wonder. it was mysterious, magical and arcane   rather like mass at our inner city anglo catholic church, where i, as boat boy, was gradually working my way up to becoming head thurifer, much as an engine shed cleaner would progress to fireman and eventually locomotive driver. so, this book, detailing well those early days of the tyseley preserved steam organisation, is firstly a trip of pure nostalgia. a relic of childhood. having only recently laid my father’s ashes to rest in the cemetery just down the road from tyseley i scanned the book’s photos with half an eye trying to catch sight of him, or even pre school me, in the crowds. however, there is much more interest in the tyseley story than that. yes, i do have a few grumbles. as someone who was fascinated by the work going on to restore albert hall (and who still has the 1970s hornby loco model) but knew nothing of its transformation into an earlier incarnation, rood ashton hall, until an open day visit in 2013, i would have loved to have heard more about how this original identity was discovered and the decision made to change the name. there are also a few production issues. while much of the prose is of a reasonable standard, because there are different contributors, with some articles taken from other publications, there is considerable overlap. the selection of photos is excellent (i keep going back to them); however the captions are disappointing, being simply repetitions from the main body text, often appearing side by side. a thorough copy edit should have cleaned out these issues and also dealt with the page where words and letters decided to play musical chairs. these caveats aside   and after thirty years as a bookseller i’m bound to have certain standards   this is a thoroughly informative and enjoyable read. its strengths, apart from the photographs, centre around the insight it provides into the formation and culture of the preserved railway scene. there have been some huge battles and hurdles for our heritage railway lines and centres to overcome to get started, survive and flourish. i see many similarities with rural churches   with the general society losing touch with the past that these institutions evoke, with aging volunteers, the loss of key workers with key skills, the sense that they are keepers of ancient mysteries, with fresh environmental, financial and pandemic induced pressures. whitehouse is, however, clear, that (just like our church communities) for railway heritage organisations to survive they must catch a forward facing vision, one which embraces change, which, in church terms, seeks to tell the gospel story for a new generation. you get the feeling that his association   vintage trains   and tyseley locomotive works are among the forefront of the organisations that will see steam railways remaining an important, visible and experienceable part of british culture right through the twenty first century. 2. ‘the stone book quartet’, alan garner, collins, 9780001842892. four short novels, first published in the 1970s, gathered into one volume that offer pinhole camera like images of the generations of one family from the mid nineteenth century to the second world war. set in the northwest of england the minutiae of rural life is seen through the eyes of four children on the cusp   of revelation, of adulthood, of purpose, of momentous world change rippling out into the little pools of their patch. we begin with a stone mason, who builds the walls of the parish, both domestic and agricultural   the boundaries that keep us safe and keep us out   as well as the vital architecture of the village   church at one end, chapel at the other. one child rebels from the family trade to become a smith because, as he discerns, at the back of every mason is a smith   the one who makes the tools the mason requires to do his work. at the quartet’s conclusion the last smith damps down the forge fire and locks the door forever. the second world war is roaring overhead, the speed of change has accelerated, mechanisation has rendered his role redundant. but how will his grandson, who he gifts the key to the forge, find his own way in an increasingly uncertain, urbanised and pressurised world? these early novels stand in a direct line with ‘treacle walker’ and other works of garner’s late maturity. they display his signature clarity, economy of line, playful use of language, the rolling of dialect, of children’s private speech, their knowingness and their innocence, of old skills and tools that grounded a person in their place, connected them to the land on which they dwelt, the earth that gives and takes away. what’s missing, although there is a sense that it is just around the corner, is the magic naturalism of much of his later writing, the bringing alive of the myths and legends of the land, the genii loci that weave humanity into one fabric with the rest of creation. that extra layer of mythical interconnectedness is wonderful   disconcerting, but wonderful   yet the four novels of ‘the stone book quartet’ prove that even without it alan garner is a most unnervingly beautiful, earthed and vital writer. 3. ‘english grounds’, andrew rumsey, scm press, 9780334061144. this is a book that plays to my own interests, especially being grounded in place, in parish. as the bishop of ramsbury travels around the salisbury diocese he observes and muses, often with considerable erudition and evocative, well placed language. history, pre history, social, political, natural history all mix in to explore the values that shift or bind society, the units of organisation that are best placed to fulfil the remit of justice, compassion, care, a flourishing future for all. nature intrudes, or makes its lasting presence felt and mystery edges over the plains. the land   with its own rhythms of centuries, millennia, rises into view time and again as earthing of the essential us. rural parishes, rural villages are understood as the patient backbone of the church of england   taken for granted, ignored, mistreated, patronised because they don’t have the flash or the cash of their suburban neighbours, yet without them the whole structure would collapse. mixing his wide scope of knowledge and interests together andrew rumsey has produced another thoughtful, challenging, book that unpicks and restitches the patchwork of parishes that criss cross this country, reminding us of the myriad threads intertwined within and between each one to form the cloth, sometimes gaudy, sometimes rustic, sometimes more frayed than functional, that makes up our state church. there are some lovely turns of phrase, powerful images, pushing insights, moments where boundaries are reformed or broken. what arran would make of being included in book titled ‘english grounds’ i don’t know, and it is a shame that this book has been published by the academic scm press, rather than canterbury press as a paperback format with a lower cover price which would have opened it out for many more folk to enjoy. 4. ‘on a glass lightly’, simon whistler, libanus press, 9780948921619. laurence whistler, brother of the more famous rex and father of simon, almost single handedly rescued the art of glass engraving in britain. simon was taught by his father from childhood, and in this book admits to never really feeling as if he was out of his shadow. laurence died in 2000, and simon in 2005, of motor neurone disease. sadly, the art that they revived has few proponents in the uk today and there are no full time courses teaching it. which is a shame, because at its best glass engraving is possibly the most liminal of all the fine arts. it simultaneously holds your eye and transports you through into another dimension, space, world. simon, who talks of making his living through ‘scratching’ was not just an artist but also a talented professional musician, working for thirty years as a violinist in ensembles such as the english chamber orchestra and the orchestra of the age of enlightenment. eventually, the call of the glass proved stronger and from the mid nineties until his death he devoted himself to the art. much of this information you can glean from the memoir part of this book, which is both honest and partial. there is much that he doesn’t say about his life, or about what really drew him to keep going with the engraving. as for the work itself, the photography in the book is excellent, but it can never do the pieces justice. you really do have to see them in situ. many of the smal er pieces   bowls, goblets, dishes and decanters   are in private collections, so not easily viewable, however in his later years simon focussed more on church commissions. this was something his father (with his help) had done most memorably at the ‘glass church’ of st nicholas, moreton, dorset. it is hard to describe the work, you really do need to see it. but it is exquisitely beautiful. the bowls and goblets especially make full use of the shape of the vessel and the ability to engrave all round on inside and out to create landscapes that truly transport the eye. simon whistler was a wonderful draughtsman with a great love of landscape and architecture who could (painstakingly, one stipple at a time) conjure worlds out of light. back in 1993, when we still lived in salisbury, there was an exhibition of the work of father and son in the city museum, in the close a few doors along from brother/uncle rex’s former house. we visited it and were transported by the pieces   although we already knew of laurence’s work from the examples in the cathedral. we also heard simon talking about his work. this must have been just before he went full time. everything we saw was enchanting on many levels   partly because of its luminosity, partly the virtuosity of technique, but also because there was something deeply spiritual, in the manner of george herbert, about almost every vessel and window. 5. ‘the weirdstone of brisingamen’, alan garner, harpercollins, 9780006742937. first published in 1960, this is the title that opens the weirdstone trilogy and i believe i have read it before, but not for nearly 50 years. so, maybe that’s why i can’t remember anything about it, just a vague unsettling feeling that there is something nasty lurking in the woodpile. this is a children’s book, but it is alan garner, so it possibly isn’t. the old gods of britain are rising all along alderley edge, and two children, booted northwards from their soft southern family life, are caught up in the swirling midst of magic and mayhem. the edge is pivotal as the balance between good and evil teeters, the land clagging and releasing, breathing its own presence into the bones of the tale. brutal violence breaks the boundaries keeping the old ways and humanity from meeting, but this isn’t horror, or a thriller, nor could it be easily passed off as british magic realism. yet there is a hint of that, of the world of myth, of glamour, always writhing round at the edges of daily experience. a gripping, satisfying and discomforting read the more i think about it the more i can see it raises about borderlands, ancient tracks and otherness. 6. ‘the filthy quiet’, kate noakes, parthian, 9781912681020. 7. ‘cape town’, kate noakes, eyewear publishing, 9781908998026. kate noakes poetry is witty, intense, personal and caught me in the raw several times. ‘the filthy quiet’ unpicks a relationship, a tense, brutal unstitching of a life, skimmed with love and soaked in bitterness, but it ends with resurrection, a new love and a sensual, soaring hope. ‘cape town’ takes a trip across south africa zoning down onto tiny details and scoping outwards to encompass land and skyscape. both collections twist and glow with versatility and vibrancy. 8. ‘the moon of gomrath’, alan garner, harpercollins, 9780007127870. re reading alan garner is a very rewarding experience. writing of rare quality with no padding and no words out of place. 9. ‘take this bread’, sara miles, canterbury press, 9781848252141. re read to create a lent course for my new parishes, i found sara miles energy, vision and passion as fresh as ever. as she rises to the opportunities of faith and foodbanks she offers a profound and vivid challenge to traditional concepts of church. 10. ‘tales of a country parish’, colin heber percy, short books, 9781780724973. the archbishop of york, when discussing the lord’s prayer, has distinguished between ‘living in’ and ‘living on’ the earth. ‘living on’ might imply walking over, trampling, while ‘living in’ has connotations of rooted connection with neighbourhood and landscape. in tales of a country parish colin heber percy emerges unequivocally as ‘living in’ a corner of the savernake forest, his longstanding home and, more recently, his place of ministry. as an accomplished screenwriter who teaches philosophy and metaphysics, he is also comfortable ‘living in’ the worlds of words, images and ideas which infuse his writing with vigour and variety, allowing his parish centred view to speak to wider horizons. for many clergy the enforced closure of our churches during the pandemic’s initial phases prompted urgent reappraisal of how we continued ministering, making a virtue out of distance in our contact with parishioners and in the new forms of worship we were busily devising. colin heber percy saw as vital the maintenance of existing, and the making of fresh, connections with the souls in his care. a daily reflective email became his way of keeping in touch, sharing the pain, confusion and fear of lockdown while offering spiritual support, sustenance and challenge. this book, described by the author as both ‘a record of a remarkable year’ and ‘a hymn to a holy land’, is the result, split into four sections covering each season. in spending time that sharpened his sense of the sacred discernible in home and hillside, he created relationships that rippled out from his parishes around the world, providing solace to folk quarantined in hotels in thailand, snowed in above the norwegian line of the arctic circle, or recovering from covid in intensive care. by laying bare his own negotiations through the tangled wires sent sparking by the pandemic, he provided if not a template then a rough worksheet others might use for recalibration and restoration. the collection encapsulates something of the disconnection and disruption many felt during this year while offering a personal perspective through the lens of the author’s individual specialisms. initially, the story of his wife’s slow recovery from covid earths his reflections in the quavering uncertainty we shared globally. a supporting cast of recurring characters, including an adopted stray cat and his unreliable, time worn seat ibiza, provide continuity, alongside a voluminous portmanteau of philosophers and theologians whose insights gently weave a spiritual focus into meetings with potholes, petrol stations and standing stones. pieces of music chosen to enrich each reflection are suggested at the end of each seasonal section, providing a track list that chimes remarkably closely with my own lockdown listening. this adds an extra immersive layer to a book which shines with a sense of exploration and generosity towards others, of drawing sustenance from myriad sources while remaining firmly in touch with chalk encrusted feet searching lost downland tracks. the spirit of wormingford flows through colin heber percy’s writing. long may ‘living in’ be the vocation of all parish priests; indeed, of all who share belief in the incarnation. 11. ‘drawn to nature: gilbert white and the artists’, pallant house gallery, 9781869827755. beautifully illustrated, with an introduction by david attenborough (written many years ago) and an essay by virginia woolf, this is not quite the book i was hoping for. in essence it is the guide to a pallant house exhibition of modern and contemporary artistic responses to the enduring writing of ‘the natural history and antiquities of selborne’. the artworks are great   you’ll know many of the names: john nash, eric ravilious, gertrude hermes, claire oldham, agnes miller parker   and it ties in well with the exhibitions we recently saw at salisbury museum, one on twentieth century british wood engravers, the other on howard phipps. however, the book quickly peters out, leaving pages of striking, gorgeous contemporary illustrations with only the tail smoke of commentary. it is a shame, i was looking for a meaty dissection of how and why white’s relationship with his patch of countryside and his close, questioning observation of fauna and flora resonates so effectively and so creatively with artists down the centuries. 12. ‘tattoo on crow street’, kate noakes, parthian, 9781910409992. 13. ‘paris, stage left’, kate noakes, eyewear publishing, 9781911335429. tattoos are not something i understand, they always seem to be the bruising of fruit, a voluntary descent into brokenness, a clouding of purity, a cock and balls scribbled over the page of a prayer book. no matter how shapely, intriguing, cryptic they try to be, they always offend. so ‘tattoo on crow street’, a collection of poems about tattoos spied and drawn off the skin onto paper, is a challenge. but they bloom in kate noakes poems, inking in some details, real or imagined, of lives intersecting with hers   whether in a queue or a bar, at the hairdresser’s or on the street corner. ‘paris, stage left’ breathes with personhood of the city as kate noakes grows into the veins of its streets and begins to make it her home. playful, sensual, sometimes steel sharp, these are the chronicles of relationship, where the men she meets always seem to be either ciphers for, or subsumed by the twisting, rain soaked, wine cloaked personality of paris. both books glistered with a joyous immersion into life in all its variety, sometimes unpicking my eyes to the glitter i tend to dismiss as grit. 14. ‘how village churches thrive’, robert atwell (ed), church house publishing, 9781781402191. hugh dennis’s carefully constructed foreword to how village churches thrive highlights a major conundrum for rural parishes when he describes evident affection for his local village church without once mentioning allegiance to the christian faith. similarly, although conversations on the streets of our benefice often include the question ‘how is the church doing?’, they seldom translate into regular engagement with our work and worship. clearly, support for church buildings as a key component of what defines ‘a village’ persists, particularly among older residents, while the church is still cautiously perceived as an institution with a positive impact on community life. simon jenkins, who starkly described the church of england as ‘the museum of the country’, also stated that in church he experiences only ‘the memory of faith present in an old building’. how village churches thrive offers a practical guide to build on the positives of the former statement, exploring how rural churches can assist neighbourhoods to discover what it has meant, does mean and will mean to be living, connected communities. simultaneously, through gentle probing and widespread examples of good practice, the book provides a fruitful response to the negativity of sir simon’s latter remark. in ten short chapters, written by a variety of authors with a range of experience, anglican and ecumenical, it covers ten significant areas   including extending a warm welcome, caring for god’s acre, cultivating festivals, reaching the isolated and communicating effectively. each chapter begins by flagging up three key learning objectives and provides a brief overview of the subject, a selection of case studies and a collection of ‘great resources’ giving further depth and inspiration. more detailed attention on how increasingly large multi parish benefices might interconnect and develop as the body of christ, with each parish contributing skills, resources and experiences to a growing whole, would be extremely useful. however, this project is a starting point, not a fully formed roadmap for a rural renaissance, and it does a commendable job in offering both space and stimulation for individual parishes, or benefices, to envision imaginative strategies applicable to their own situations. having suggested to our benefice wardens and readers that this is an ideal book to work through with a pcc or whole church community, i have received an enthusiastic response and am hopeful that this timely volume will give encouragement and inspiration to many involved with growing vibrant, gospel centred communities in rural settings. 15. ‘the real and the romantic: english art between two world wars’, frances spalding, thames & hudson, 9780500518649. this is a corker. spalding’s writing style is clear, well structured and full of authority, easily conveyed. the conceit of dividing between wars english art into the ‘real’ and the ‘romantic’ works. it gives spalding space to go beyond realism and romanticism, to crossover modernism, surrealism and developments in more traditional genres and to introduce a coterie of artists   often women   not usually discussed. strangely, for such a beautifully written book, it ends abruptly, with no real conclusion, but maybe that’s a positive as it is not really pushing a thesis, rather illuminating the range and versatility of art in a particular time frame. i will read this again   it is very readable   as it offers so much insight into painters i thought i knew, and opened my eyes to ones i had not met before. 16. ‘the exhibitionist’, charlotte mendelson, pan macmillan, 9781529052749. longlisted for the women’s prize for fiction, 2022. a truly terrible read. not that it was badly written, simply because the characters were all so unlikable. this was meant to be relaxing holiday reading. it wound me up totally. the premise was that a married couple of artists have conflict over each other’s work   the husband always insisting that his career takes precedence, but the wife being the truly talented one. a good starting point, and probably reflecting a near universal tension in artistic relationships. however, husband ray was so unredeemably horrible, with no saving graces whatsoever, that it nullified any attempt at complexity or character growth. a boorish, neurotic, manipulator, utterly self obsessed, believing everything revolves around him, he was so vile, so extreme, that any of us who exhibit any degree of such tendencies would fail to see ourselves in such an overdrawn caricature. if his wife, lucia, was such a good artist   she gets offered the british pavilion at the venice biennale, and is inclined to turn it down so as not to hurt her husband’s feelings   then why didn’t she stand up to him? you don’t get such prestigious commissions if you aren’t driven. eldest daughter, leah, does everything her father wishes   she is nothing without him. younger daughter, jess, has done the sensible thing and moved far away, but fallen in with an older man who just wants to ape her father’s ‘manliness’. brother (by a different father), patrick, is a ghost of a character, slipping through the story like a mist, a damp cipher of unhappiness. and while it is usually interesting seeing how writers handle the visual arts, in this case it is done by pretty much ignoring the art. i’m glad this was a library book   i’ll return it to the ‘horror’ section. 17. ‘full steam ahead, felix’, kate moore, penguin, 9781405942304. felix is senior pest controller at huddersfield station on the trans pennine express. she is also a cat with her own facebook page and an international host of followers. this is the second part of her story, telling more about her relationships with work colleagues and customers, her fame, her lack of success on the pigeon hunting front and how she adapts to being a line manager, responsible for the training for the junior pest controller, kitten bolt. it isn’t the best of written books   a hard copy edit could have livened up the prose and eliminated some of the more leaden phrasing   but it is an endearing, enjoyable and at times poignant read. 18. ‘unquiet landscape’, christopher neve, thames and hudson, 9780500295472. landscape, as seen through the eyes of some of my favourite artists   the nash brothers, graham sutherland, eric ravilious, david jones, ivon hitchens, stanley spencer. but also many i wouldn’t have put in this context   joan eardley, walter sickert, edward burra, l.s lowry   and several i knew little about. the writing is intense and vivid, with more than a touch of j.a. baker, about it. it is so keenly and colourfully observed that sentences drip with meaning and ooze with mystery. there is no attempt to skewer the intangible, rather an elliptical probing of fecund territory and hazy horizons. christopher neve speaks from first hand contact with many of the artists and their contemporaries, and from his own work as a painter. his awareness of the limitations of words to describe art and the artistic process helps make this a more satisfying read, one which opens new vistas and allows questions, like colours, to pulse. 19. ‘coal black mornings’, brett anderson, abacus, 9781408710487. when brit pop was ascendant in the 1990s i was looking/listening in other directions, moving from no wave and the sub pop label to the genres i was selling as manager of a large classical music cd department in a major southampton bookshop. oasis, blur, pulp and suede completely passed me by, so while brett anderson’s was a name i recognised, his music was not. however, this is a fascinating, quietly written book that charts anderson’s early life and his development as a song writer and band member, finishing just at the point when suede began to get noticed. as such, it details his formation and influences, providing useful material for anyone wishing to dissect his lyrics. he and i would have been living in london at around the same time, although moving in very different circles, and his descriptions of the sights and smells of the less glamourous parts of greater london ring true. thoughtful, generous and unmelodramatic, this is a lively, gentle introduction to an interesting life, which got me listening to the first album and, to be honest, i definitely prefer anderson’s prose to his music. 20. recently re read: ‘elidor’, alan garner, harper collins, 9780007274789. a bout of covid has given space for some reading, but whether it was wise to attack the ‘low fantasy’ or magic realism of alan garner at this time is a moot point. the post war manchester world of the watson children is, today, almost as alien and fantastical as the mythic land of elidor that they find themselves in. however, garner always finds a way of grounding even the most ‘other’ of his creations in mud spattered reality, allowing the numinous to shine in the puddles reflecting the sodium glare of a city still teetering in the after effects of war. 21. recently re read: ‘the owl service’, alan garner, harper collins, 9780007127894. there is a distinct gear change in the suspense, the tightness of the plotting and the evocation of the landscape between this book and garner’s previous novels. there is more lurking menace and more personal tension than before, a greater feeling of outsiders being disrupted by their surroundings and a feeling of inevitability, that increases the eternal sense of jeopardy. perhaps it is the silvern magic of the mabinogion that grounds the story of trapped lives playing out an eternal ritual of death and life, or perhaps it is the close sided landscape that garner depicts with such precision, that folds over us as we read and draws us into a world and a language that continuously shivers on the edge of the numinous. 22. ‘the reader’, bernhard schlink, phoenix, 9780753823293. i came to this book without having seen the film version, but was roughly aware of the story. still, the opening was surprising, swiftly diving into the passionate   on one side, at least   relationship that makes this novel. essentially a two hander, seen almost entirely through the eyes of one character, there is a simplicity to the story telling that belies the moral and philosophical complexities that lurk beneath. i don’t know how much of the gentle flow of the prose is due to the translator, but this is an engaging, warm read with much compassion despite the difficult nature of the subject matter. it is not condemnatory, but neither does it let the horror of the situation, of the raw violence of the concentration camps, that lie at the centre of the plot, be smoothed away. it leaves you with a resolution, of sorts, but also with many questions. 23. recently re read: ‘boneland’, alan garner, fourth estate, 9780007463251. did this make any more sense than when i read it the first time? i’m not sure. did it make the same sense? probably not. when you are writing about the earth, the elemental, and relating it to consciousness, collective memory, universality and the universe(s), then you need many, many layers. and these are not necessarily to be unwrapped like pass the parcel, as each may itself be woven deep into the whole structure, or may shimmer and dissolve into the air. there is a plot, two plots, and many tales. there is energy, earthiness, unhooking and grounding. there are many, many questions, but few answers   unless you keep looking and are prepared for the answers to keep moving. the weirdstone retains its weirdness right to the end of the trilogy, and only a master writer could do that while also providing, allowing, some sense of conclusion (and beginning). 24. ‘the madness of grief’, richard coles, weidenfeld and nicolson, 9781474619622. bought on publication, i have only just got round to reading it and, as i thought i might, i have struggled to connect with it. coles and i are both clergy of comparable age who share a first name. but that’s about where the similarity ends. he’s a round the world traveller, with a portmanteau of experiences. i’ve not had use for a passport, preferring the quietness of home. i certainly don’t relate to his experience of grief (which was why the book was worth reading). yes, i’ve held the hands of my parents as they died, and then led, and preached at their funeral services, vigorously, but decorously, swinging the thurible over their coffins. but there were no tears   people leave your life all the time, death is just one of many ways. no relationship is permanent. friendship is a strange word whose meaning i haven’t quite figured. yes, taking my cousin’s funeral this spring was not easy   she was a lovely person, younger than me, with teenage children. she had struggled with an awful illness and the packed church, far way from my home county, was filled with pain and emotion. i felt deeply sad then, as i have at some of the funerals i have ministered at of wonderful, vivacious people, who seemed to be only just getting into their stride. but my sadness has been more about the pain and suffering i witness in those left behind. his habit of name dropping people, places and products irritates me intensely. there are times when he just seems like a crass party crashing celebrity bore, but then he is also thoughtful, insightful, perceptive and, occasionally, witty. his love for david was mighty   is mighty. whatever words i could use about their love would be inadequate, partly because i’ve never met them, but also because it was a marriage (formally, a civil partnership) and there is a reason why the wedding ceremony is full of symbolism. words only scratch the surface of such intense, intimate, vulnerable relationships   you have to be in it to understand it. they were obviously immensely joyful together, but also seared with pain. i do get that   the way one partner’s deep seated, intractable illness of mind, body and spirit can bring out the worst in the other and draw down the doors of the night, daily masking the sun’s warmth and light. at best this book articulates the lava like physicality of his grief   whether flowing, coagulating or burning   through incident, tangential anecdote, motes of dust lit by sunbeams and a certain guarded honesty. guarded, i would think, to protect himself, on many levels, as well as david and his family from too much prying. perhaps, also there is an elemental need to keep his and david’s intimacy, their being as a couple, private, to preserve some of its vital energy. that feels right, honourable, while also allowing for sincerity in expressing pain, the scream that knows no name, the ululation that usurps breathing, to be made relatable for both those who have felt similar and those, like me, for whom this is foreign territory. is it a hopeful book? i think so. should it be? i’m not sure. part of the honesty, of the book’s significance, is that the rawness of grief blisters through. this is not about healing, it is more about acknowledging that everything has changed, yet the world keeps on rolling by, and you either find a way to roll with it or you don’t. it is a book worth reading and sharing, but that doesn’t take away from wishing that richard coles hadn’t needed to have written it. 25. ‘lifting the veil’, malcolm guite, canterbury press, 9781786224545. a very short book that has taken me a long time to read, and i’m not sure why. my own ennui, i guess. anyway, this is a poetic plea to take seriously the life of the imagination as part of god’s unfolding revelation. it makes great sense and contains some very thoughtful exegesis. god is creativity, god breathed creativity into us. it is a good thing. something that has a great part to play in our exploration. searching and unravelling of who god is, why god is, what god is in relation to all creation and us. use it or get crushed by the rigid rules of rationalism. 26. re read ‘the return of the prodigal son’, henri nouwen, dlt, 978023252078x. once again a challenge, soaked in beauty, clothed in humility and shining with sometimes quiet, sometimes stark truths. meditations on rembrandt, his late work, the return of the prodigal son’, the conjoined biblical parables of the prodigal sons and each of the three main characters. 27. ‘short stories by jesus’ amy jill levine, harperone, 9780061561030. amy jill levine describes herself as a ‘yankee jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly christian divinity school in the buckle of the bible belt’. she is both a professor of new testament studies and a professor of jewish studies, and she is not one to mince her words. in this lively exploration of nine of jesus’s parables she breaks open standard preconceptions about first century judaism, reclaiming the jewishness of jesus’s stories. along the way she is scathing about the uninformed nature of many well known new testament commentators, who see jesus as berating the faith of his fellow co religionists when she believes he is more often trenchantly calling out social injustice. an important book for anyone who regularly preaches on the parables, which re energises them with the provocative power that made them so memorable to jesus’s first hearers. 28. re read ‘my name is asher lev’, chaim potok, penguin, 9780140036428. on my third reading of this beautiful and unsettling book i was more aware of the battles that both the young artistic prodigy, asher’s, parents each face to find their own places in the world. i know some see a bleakness, even an unhealthy obsession in asher’s pursuit to fulfil his artistic destiny, but that same single minded determination is at play in each member of this devout hasidic family in post war brooklyn. it is a remarkable novel, equal to anything by the better known jewish american novelists of potok’s generation. 29. ‘back in the day’, melvyn bragg, sceptre, 9781529394450. the life of lord bragg from birth to his decision to accept a place at wadham college. this is very much a book grounded in place (how often do i say that) and the knowledge that where he was born and brought up is truly home. it is a different world   post war in a working northern town within striking distance of the lake district. there is so much going on in lord bragg’s head, and it is not all rosy   we have intimations of his first breakdown at 13   but it is colourful, filled with the vigour of the community and the graft of a society that feels quite self contained. his hard work ethic is born in this place   not so that he can escape it, but because he wants to do the best he can, while still staying loyal to his hometown. 30. re read ‘the gift of asher lev’, chaim potok, knopf, 9780394572123. the second volume in the story of asher lev is well worth a read. lev has been living in france for many years, has grown in fame as an artist, has built a life with his wife and two children and has remained faithful to his ladover community, even though they are still wary of him. the death of his father’s brother takes him back to brooklyn, firstly for the funeral. however, his uncle, who had been supportive of lev’s art, had secretly bought a significant collection of contemporary art, not just his nephew’s work but also all the great’s of the twentieth century   picasso, matisse, soutine, modigliani,chagall, et al   that his wife and children absolutely abhorred. lev can either sell the collection, or use it to buy new works, but whatever he does any profits will go to the ladover community. this puts him at odds with his family, and the return to brooklyn stifles his own work. meanwhile, the rebbe is growing increasingly frail and there are issues about who will succeed him. as the book unfolds so lev and the rebbe come to realise that it is lev’s family   his father, and his toddler son, who are the chosen ones, if lev will give his consent. it isn’t quite as beautiful book as ‘my name is asher lev’, but it is full of wonderful writing and draws out the story of lev in a thoughtful and satisfying way. 31. ‘oil paintings in public ownership: north and mid wales’, the public catalogue foundation, 9781909475038. does exactly what it says, cataloguing every oil (and acrylic) painting in every public institution in this area of the country. those that aren’t photographed are described. it is a fascinating mix of local portraiture and welsh artists from the seventeenth to the twenty first centuries and contains a significant number of works by kyffin williams. a lovely, but heavy books. 32. ‘murder before evensong’, richard coles, weidenfeld and nicolson, 9781474612630. risible. there might be a good short story in here, just, but it needs someone who can write fiction. that doesn’t seem to be richard coles. coles can write   his book on grief is personal, thoughtful, coherent, vivid and full of interesting images. however, ‘murder before evensong’ ditches all pretence of intelligent prose, feels devoid of humour, warmth or anything that you might call ‘characterisation’. a village is roughly drawn, but is subsumed under the lowering influence of the local lord’s estate. each person we meet is a tracing paper sketch for a cartoon   transparent, faint and devoid of breath. there is a plot, which is might, in the hands of a competent craftsman, have been interesting, but which jerks along with all the finesse of brunel’s atmospheric railway. the most terrifying moment was turning the last page to find an advert for the next novel in the series. everything that is good about richard coles   his empathy, his humour, his gentle lampooning of the faith he loves and the church, which hasn’t always treated him well   have all been eviscerated, leaving little but vanity, an unpleasant preoccupation with the gentry and a claggy sense of his own importance. my go to music, when i need focus, is hildegard von bingen, who, along with josquin des prez, provide me with purity and perfection. perhaps the same could be said for sarah davachi’s work. i’ve been listening to her music for a few years now, and each piece has drawn me more into her soundscapes, her compositions that seem deeply earthed yet able to fly with similar ethereal tangibility to one of remedios varo alchemical women. seeing her live at st george’s, brandon hill, was a highlight of the year, the venue perfectly suited to the mystical core of davachi’s music. in preparation for the new swans album, due (i hope) in 2023, i’ve been listening again to their mid 80s and mid 90s albums, and there is something about davachi that feels like the flipside of michael gira’s work. if i say she counterbalances his aggression with serenity that is a gross simplification for both composer/performers. davachi’s serenity is not simpering, it feels   like with the great mystics   as if it has taken hard, mind breaking toil to get there. gira also can also take music to an almost hildegardian essence, but has to crawl through mud and viscera to get there. personally, gira’s work resonates with me most when he involves women, who can counter some of the caricatures of extreme masculinity that he is inclined towards. a davachi/gira collaboration would be fascinating, as would a more equal partnership between gira and anna von hausswolff, who have worked together before. her 2022 live album provides a fine introduction to her church organ based sound   music that is never settled, always questioning, comes from deep within the earth, within the self. jarboe was collaborator with gira in, perhaps his most fertile period, and it was great to have their first recording together as skin, ‘blood, women, roses’ reissued, with fresh versions of some of the songs. the new versions don’t quite work for me, but that’s probably nostalgia kicking in. it is the mix of jeopardy and crystalline brilliance that takes me back to this album time and again. i’ve also been playing a fair bit of nick cave, partly because of seeing the andrew dominik film ‘this much i know to be true’ at the global cinema premiere in may and partly through reading the cave/séan o’hagan book ‘faith, hope and carnage’. both film and book draw out elements of cave’s work that have long fascinated me. for many years i’ve thought that cave was the most theologically astute songwriter around (while michael gira is perhaps the most liturgically shrewd), and it is good to be able to explore this more. ‘ghosteen’ is an intensely potent album which reveals its richness gradually through repeated listening   i didn’t pay it enough attention when it was first released. it receives extensive exploration in both book and film, which greatly add to my appreciation of the music. while ‘this much i know to be true’ was top of my musical screen shows of 2022, two glastonbury performances were almost as good. self esteem’s set was coruscating, an absolutely full on show of strength, brimming with anger, energy, wit and intelligence. the same could also be said for kendrick lamar’s performance, an extended agnes dei that was the perfect closer for the festival   brimming with light and shade, with the angst of a world in crisis, with individual pain and collective torment. there were, of course, some absolute clunkers, jack white’s latest being especially disappointing, but best not dwell on these, nor some other favourite artists such as tove lo, arcade fire, animal collective, pixies, spiritualized, elvis costello, who felt off the boil. however, what was good was excellent. it might only be an ep, but i can’t praise lucy gooch’s expanded edition of ‘rushing’ enough. not sure why, but it has a purity that deeply appeals. most played albums were davachi’s ‘two sisters’, kaina’s ‘it was a home’, the big moon’s ‘here is everything’ and the unthanks ‘sorrows away’. i also adored the massive blondie box set ‘against the odds; 1974 1982’. this was a huge listen, hours of alternative versions and outtakes that added greatly to my love of blondie’s almost perfect pop. i’ve also got to mention the track ‘the things they did for me out of love’ by yeule. it is 4 hours 44 minutes long, but it is a corker, utterly mesmeric throughout and appealed to me in much the same way as goldie’s track ‘mother.truth’. all in all, there was some amazing music released, and while i managed to listen to 158 new albums, that is only scratching at the surface of what’s out there. maybe in 2023 i’ll listen to less, but attend more. i’m already looking forward to the release of the new swans album while hoping that there might be a full disc from caroline polachek. below is the full listing of everything new/reissued listened to, in order of rating (5 1) and then alphabetically by artist. davachi, sarah   in concert and in residence 5 davachi, sarah   two sisters 5 gooch, lucy   rushing (expanded edition) ep 5 kaina   it was a home 5 raum   daughter (grouper) 5 shaw, caroline/ attacca quartet   evergreen 5 big moon   here is everything 4.5 birch, sofie/ nowacka, antonia   languoria 4.5 blondie   against the odds:1974 1982 4.5 fratti, mabe   se ve desde aquí 4.5 hausswolff, anna von   live at montreux jazz festival 4.5 jarboe   skin blood women roses (reissue) 4.5 preisner, zbigniew & gerrard, lisa   it’s not too late 4.5 unthanks   sorrows away 4.5 various   l’aurore (enescu, ysaye, benjamin, hildegard, j.s. bach) 4.5 voice of the beehive   let it bee (remastered and expanded) 4.5 winter   what kind of blue are you? 4.5 yeah yeah yeahs   cool it down 4.5 adams, eve   metal bird 4 alberga, eleanor   orchestral works 4 anchoress, the   the art of losing (expanded edition) 4 aslan, mehmet   the sun is parallel 4 aurelia smith, kaitlyn   let’s turn it into sound 4 barslev, nanna   lysbaerer 4 beales, rachel taylor   out of this frame 4 big thief   dragon new warm mountain i believe in you 4 cannell, laura   antiphony of the trees 4 cannell, laura   we long to be haunted (ep) 4 dalt, lucrecia   ¡ay! 4 dama scout   gen wo lai (come with me) 4 davidson, grace/hildegard von bingen   sacred chants 4 donnelly, stella   flood 4 emeralds   solar bridge (reissue) 4 eno, brian   foreverandevernomore 4 fenella   the metallic index 4 forsyth, keeley   limbs 4 hekla   xiuxiuejar 4 howley, elaine   the distance between heart and mouth 4 hurray for the riff raff   life in earth 4 hval, jenny   classic objects 4 kikagaku moyo   kumoyo island 4 lambchop   the bible 4 le bon, cate   pompeii 4 let’s eat grandma   two ribbons 4 li, luna   duality 4 li, lykke   eyeeye 4 lotus eater   plasma 4 m.i.a.   mata 4 marquiss, duncan   wires turned sideways in time 4 maurseth, benedicte   harr 4 orton, beth   weather alive 4 owens, kelly lee   lp.8 4 pavement   terror twilight: farewell horizontal (2 hours 40 mins) 4 polachek, caroline   welcome to my island (ep) 4 santigold   spirituals 4 sleater kinney   dig me in: a dig me out covers album 4 smith, kaitlyn aurelia & mosseri, emile   i could be your dog/i could be your moon 4 smoke fairies   sticks and stones (ep) 4 sonic youth   in/out/in 4 special interest   endure 4 stick in the wheel   endurance soundly caged (ep) 4 stick in the wheel   stick in the wheel present perspectives on tradition 4 strummer, joe   joe strummer 002: the mescaleros years 4 swift, taylor   midnights 4 tempus   pole 4 timothy, duval   meeting with a judas tree 4 trentmøller   memoria 4 uchida, mitsuko   diabelli variations (beethoven) 4 van etten, sharon   we’ve been going about this all wrong 4 wasylyk, andrew   hearing the water before seeing the falls 4 weather station   how is it that i should look at the stars 4 weyes blood   and in the darkness, hearts aglow 4 zetina, ariel   cyclorama 4 alex g   god save the animals 3.5 alvaays   blue rev 3.5 animal collective   time skiffs 3.5 avery, daniel   ultra truth 3.5 belle and sebastian   a bit of previous 3.5 beyoncé   renaissance 3.5 bibi   lowlife princess: noir 3.5 bjork   fossora 3.5 christine and the queens   redcar les adorable étoiles (prologue) 3.5 daphni   cherry 3.5 florence + the machine   dance fever 3.5 frye, eric   glass top redux 3.5 ghosh, arun   secluded in light 3.5 girlpool   forgiveness 3.5 henner, dylan   flues of forgotten sands 3.5 hurley, michael   the time of the foxgloves 3.5 ibeyi   spell 31 3.5 ikeda, ryoji   ultratronics 3.5 jarre, jean michel   oxymore 3.5 joyce, molly   perspective 3.5 lattimore, mary & sukeena, paul   west kensington 3.5 mahbouli, haythem   last man on earth 3.5 memory pearl (moshe fisher rosenberg)   music for seven paintings 3.5 mitchell, anaïs   anaïs mitchell 3.5 orbury common   the traditional dance of orbury common (ep) 3.5 peel, hannah, & the paraorchestra   the unfolding 3.5 plains   i walked with you a ways 3.5 power, cat   covers 3.5 richards, dawn/ zahn, spencer   pigments 3.5 riolino, julianna   all blue 3.5 rosalia   motomami 3.5 rousay, claire/more eaze   never stop texting me 3.5 russom, gavilán rayna   trans feminist symphonic music 3.5 sawayama, rita   hold the girl 3.5 schulze, klaus   deus arrakis 3.5 smile, the   a light for attracting attention 3.5 soft pink truth, the   is it going to get any deeper than this? 3.5 soundwalk collective   the perfect vision reworkings 3.5 sudan archives   natural brown prom queen 3.5 szymanski, morgan & perman, tommy   music for the moon and the trees 3.5 tempest, kae   the line is a curve 3.5 utada, hikaru   bad mode 3.5 various   simmerdim: curlew sounds 3.5 vieux farka touré et khruangbin   ali 3.5 villain, carmen   only love from now on 3.5 webster, faye   car therapy sessions (ep) 3.5 wells, emily   regards to the end 3.5 yanya, nilüfer   painless 3.5 andy, horace   midnight rocker 3 art of noise   balance (music for the eye) 3 art of noise   reduction 3 bertucci, lea   xtended vox 3 blondie   golden city blue (live 1977) 3 can   live in cuxhaven 1976 3 charli xcx   crash 3 claudio, sabrina   based on a feeling 3 danger mouse/ black thought   cheat codes 3 debit   the long count 3 elvis costello   the boy named if 3 fka twigs   caprisongs 3 frye, eric   automatic junk heuristic 3 galás, diamanda   broken gargoyles 3 heart francesca   eurybia 3 honey dijon   black girl magic 3 king gizzard and the lizard wizard   omnium gatherum 3 lamar, kendrick   mr morale and the big steppers 3 lane, iona   hallival 3 lo, tove   dirt femme 3 los bitchos   let the festivities begin! 3 lovestory, isabella   amor hard core 3 mitski   laurel hell 3 modern nature   island of noise 3 more eaze   oneiric 3 panda bear/ sonic boom   reset 3 pixies   doggerel 3 shygirl   nymph 3 soundwalk collective   lovotic 3 spiritualized   everything was beautiful 3 weeknd, the   dawn fm 3 yeule   glitch princess (last track 4hrs 44 mins, 4.5) 3 arcade fire   we 2.5 lennox, ari   age/sex/location 2.5 pinegrove   11:11 (a little sub rem) 2.5 white, jack   fear of the dawn 2.5 cabello, camila   familia 2 the madness of grief, richard coles, weidenfeld and nicolson, 9781474619622. bought on publication, i have only just got round to reading it and, as i thought i might, i have struggled to connect with it. coles and i are both clergy of comparable age who share a first name. but that’s about where the similarity ends. he’s a round the world traveller, with a portmanteau of experiences. i’ve not had use for a passport, preferring the quietness of home. i certainly don’t relate to his experience of grief (which was why the book was worth reading). yes, i’ve held the hands of my parents as they died, and then led, and preached at their funeral services (both sermons can be found on this blog), vigorously, but decorously, swinging the thurible over their coffins. but there were no tears   people leave your life all the time, death is just one of many ways. no relationship is permanent. friendship is a strange word whose meaning i haven’t quite figured. yes, taking my cousin’s funeral this spring was not easy   she was a lovely person, younger than me, with teenage children. she had struggled with an awful illness and the packed church, far away from my home county, was filled with pain and emotion. i felt deeply sad then, as i have at some of the funerals i have ministered at of wonderful, vivacious people, who seemed to be only just getting into their stride. but my sadness has been more about the pain and suffering i witness in those left behind. richard coles habit of name dropping people, places and products irritates me intensely. there are times when he seems a smidge away from a crass party crashing celebrity bore, but then he is also thoughtful, insightful, perceptive and, occasionally, witty. his love for david was mighty   is mighty. whatever words i might use about their love would be inadequate, partly because i’ve never met them, but also because it was their marriage (formally, a civil partnership) and there is a reason why the wedding ceremony is full of symbolism. words only scratch the surface of such intense, intimate, vulnerable relationships   you have to be in it to understand it. they were obviously immensely joyful together, but also seared with pain. i do get that   the way one partner’s deep seated, intractable illness of mind, body and spirit can bring out the worst in the other and draw down the doors of the night, daily masking the sun’s warmth and light. at best this book articulates the lava like physicality of his grief   whether flowing, coagulating or burning   through incident, tangential anecdote, motes of dust lit by sunbeams and a certain guarded honesty. guarded, i think, to protect himself, on many levels, as well as david and his family from too much prying. perhaps also, there is an elemental need to keep his and david’s intimacy, their being as a couple, private, to preserve some of its vital energy. that feels right, honourable, while also allowing for sincerity in expressing pain, the scream that knows no name, the ululation that usurps breathing, to be made relatable for both those who have felt similar and those, like me, for whom this is foreign territory. is it a hopeful book? i think so. should it be? i’m not sure. part of the honesty, of the book’s significance, is that the rawness of grief blisters through. this is not about healing, it is more about acknowledging that everything has changed, yet the world keeps on rolling by, and you either find a way to roll with it or you don’t. it is a book worth reading and sharing, but that doesn’t take away from wishing that richard coles hadn’t needed to have written it. the tyseley story, michael whitehouse, lightmoor press, 9781899889924. being born and brought up in hall green, birmingham, tyseley was only three stops away on the local line into the city centre. dad, being a lifelong railway enthusiast and childhood train spotter (although from lner served haunts), regularly took me to tyseley’s birmingham railway museum open days back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. while dad loved any steam locomotives he was always keen to impress upon me the pre eminence of gresley’s engineering. however, tyseley locomotive shed revealed the brunswick green (or br equivalent) copper capped elegance of gwr tapered boilers and i was hooked. i never knew the gwr in its pre nationalisation glory, or even steam in br days, but those were the locomotives, that was the railway company that caught my imagination. then, years later, when i learnt about the broad gauge and the beauty of brunel’s (gooch’s, dean’s) single driving wheel expresses, i was totally smitten. strong memories remain of those early open days. a mass of men in gaberdine overcoats, suits and ties, carrying 35mm cameras on leather straps. the ground crunching with black coal, or clinker. the smell of oil mixed with steam. stands selling railwayana with steam organs, fairground rides and traction engines at every turn. and, of course, the locomotives. prints of clun castle and kolaphur graced my walls for years. i remember seeing bishop eric treacey on the footplate of the black five locomotive named after him. if an anglican bishop was endorsing this love of steam then i, as a devout altar boy, had the perfect excuse to be faithful to two religions. then there was the day sir nigel gresley was scheduled to run past at speed on the mainline and we, along with a great cloud of like minded witnesses high tailed it down to the locomotive works to try, with small cameras and no zoom lenses, to capture this streak of blue wonder. it was mysterious, magical and arcane   rather like mass at our inner city anglo catholic church, where i, as boat boy, was gradually working my way up to becoming head thurifer, much as an engine shed cleaner would progress to fireman and eventually locomotive driver. so, this book, detailing well those early days of the tyseley preserved steam organisation, is firstly a trip of pure nostalgia. a relic of childhood. having only recently laid my father’s ashes to rest in the cemetery just down the road from tyseley i scanned the book’s photos with half an eye trying to catch sight of him, or even pre school me, in the crowds. however, there is much more interest in the tyseley story than that. yes, i do have a few grumbles. as someone who was fascinated by the work going on to restore albert hall (and who still has the 1970s hornby loco model) but knew nothing of its transformation into an earlier incarnation, rood ashton hall, until an open day visit in 2013, i would have loved to have heard more about how this original identity was discovered and the decision made to change the name. there are also a few production issues. while much of the prose is of a reasonable standard, because there are different contributors, with some articles taken from other publications, there is considerable overlap. the selection of photos is excellent (i keep going back to them); however the captions are disappointing, being simply repetitions from the main body text, often appearing side by side. a thorough copy edit should have cleaned out these issues and also dealt with the page where words and letters decided to play musical chairs. these caveats aside   and after thirty years as a bookseller i’m bound to have certain standards   this is a thoroughly informative and enjoyable read. its strengths, apart from the photographs, centre around the insight it provides into the formation and culture of the preserved railway scene. there have been some huge battles and hurdles for our heritage railway lines and centres to overcome to get started, survive and flourish. i see many similarities with rural churches   with the general society losing touch with the past that these institutions evoke, with aging volunteers, the loss of key workers with key skills, the sense that they are keepers of ancient mysteries, with fresh environmental, financial and pandemic induced pressures. whitehouse is, however, clear, that (just like our church communities) for railway heritage organisations to survive they must catch a forward facing vision, one which embraces change, which, in church terms, seeks to tell the gospel story for a new generation. you get the feeling that his association   vintage trains   and tyseley locomotive works are among the forefront of the organisations that will see steam railways remaining an important, visible and experienceable part of british culture right through the twenty first century. photographs from my father’s collection of slides. new music 2021 another year filled with a wondrous selection of new music discoveries which made choosing a top ten difficult and almost arbitrary. even if you knock out the klf/nrg albums, which are not new, but have been unavailable for so that long listening to them felt like a fresh discovery, i still managed to hear over 100 of 2021’s album releases. this left time to fill my work day with hildegard, josquin, r3’s ‘unclassified’ and ‘nightwaves’ programmes plus much more from my cd shelves. for someone who really dislikes the sound of the saxophone i seemed to hear an inordinate amount of it last year. if anyone is going to convert me to its supposed charms then it will most likely be pharoah sanders. promises, his collaboration with the lso and floating points was enchanting, disembodied, dancing on the edge of conscious thoughts and took me to new places. it didn’t make it into this top ten due to my ingrained distrust of an instrument that continues to make my skin crawl. that sarah davachi, grouper, hainbach and low didn’t hit the favourites list is purely because of the mood i was in when choosing   on another day they could have made up the first four followed by deerhoof, ghost coast choir, fatima al qadiri, self esteem, pauline ann strom and suuns. you’ll notice a penchant for more elegiac and instrumental works   that’s partly because i preference music that inspires my own working. more visceral pieces, such as lingua ignota’s sinner get ready and black dresses’ forever in your heart, needed more space and attention to absorb their confrontational challenges. there was, of course, some car crash trash in the can. you’d do far better by hitting yourself over the head with a sock full of billiard balls than listen to coldplay’s execrable music of the spheres. duran duran seem to have forgotten to include any musical ideas. marianne faithfull with warren ellis was a beautiful notion that disintegrated into powder with the first note. dry cleaning filled a whole album with one vaguely interesting concept. most of the rest i look forward to listening to again   if there is time. top ten 1. godspeed! you! black emperor   g_d’s pee at state’s end 2. weaver, jane   flock 3. trappes, penelope   penelope three 4. in the echo: field recordings 5. son lux   tommorows iii 6. roedelius/dallas acid   mind cinema 7. poppy   flux 8. shostakovich and stevenson/ igor levitt   on dsch 9. vanishing twin   ookii gekkou 10. lost girls   menneskekollektivet the full alphabetical list al qadiri, fatima   medieval femme arab strap   as days get dark avery, daniel   together in static awkward corners   amateur dramatics aya   im hole black dresses   forever in your heart bnny   everything bragg, billy   the million things that never happened bug, the   fire burch, bex and leafcutter john   boing! cave, nick/ ellis, warren   carnage cave, nick and the bad seeds   b sides and rarities (part ii) chromatics   shadow (remixes) clark   playground in a lake clausen, casper   better way coldplay   music of the spheres davachi, sarah   antiphonals davachi, sarah   mother of pearl deerhoof   actually, you can del ray, lana   blue bannisters d’eon   rhododendron drew, eris   quivering in time dry cleaning   new long leg duran duran   future past eilish, billie   happier than ever english, lawrence   observation of breath ensemble offspring   offspring bites 3: en masse faithfull, marianne; ellis, warren   she walks in beauty floating points/pharaoh sanders/lso   promises ghost coast choir   ghost coast choir gillespie, bobby; beth, jehnny   utopian ashes godspeed! you! black emperor   g_d’s pee at state’s end gooch, lucy   rain’s break (ep) grimes   miss anthropocene rave edition grouper   shade hainbach   home stories hainbach   landfill totems hainbach   schwebungssummer hall, emily; law, michael   nha trang, mini suite (ep) havlovi, irena and vojtěch   melodies in the sand holland, hannah   tectonic hye jin, park   before i die in the echo: field recordings jenkins, cassandra   an overview of phenomenal nature kedr livanskiy   liminal soul klf   come down dawn klf   sold state logik 1 klf   solid state logik 2 klf   the white room koreless   agor kourtesis, sofia   fresia magdalena (ep) krauss, alison/plant, robert   raise the roof lingua ignota   sinner get ready lorde   solar power lost girls   menneskekollektivet low   hey what lutyens, elisabeth   piano works vol 1 mas aya   mascaras mogwai   as the love continues moor mother   black encyclopedia of the air moritz von oswald trio   dissent moss, liela   who the power (reformed) nayar, rachika   our hands against the dusk nayar, rachika   fragments (ep) nrg, the   live 94 octo octa   she’s calling (ep) olafsson, vikingur   mozart & contemporaries osquinn   drive by lullabies panufnik, roxanna   heartfelt peel, hannah   fir wave peel, hannah   unheard delia (ep) poppy   flux portico quartet   monument portico quartet   terrain quantic and nidia gongora   almas connectadas radigue, eliane   occam ocean vol 3 răn cap duôi   ngù ngày ngay ngày tân the roedelius/dallas acid   mind cinema roedelius   weites land rubinos, xenia   una rosa rush, jana   painful enlightenment salsburg, nathan   psalms saxl, elori   the blue of distance seater kinney   path of wellness self esteem   prioritise pleasure sheldrake, cosmo   do (ep) shostakovich and stevenson/igor levitt   on dsch silk sonic   an evening with silk sonic smerz   believer snail mail   valentine son lux   tomorrows iii son lux   tomorrows reworks sonne, astrid   outside of your lifetime specials   protest songs st vincent   daddy’s home strom, pauline anna   angel tears in sunlight strummer, joe   assembly suuns   the witness swift, taylor   fearless (taylor’s version) swift, taylor   red (taylor’s version) takeda, soshi   floating mountains tomu dj   feminista trappes, penelope   penelope three vanishing twin   ookii gekkou war on drugs   i don’t live here any more wau wau collectif   yaral sa doom weaver, jane   flock wednesday   twin plagues young, neil and crazy horse   barn yu su   yellow river blue yves tumor   the asymptotical world (ep) the most disappointing read of 2021 was spirit of place which was all place and little spirit. it was an interesting ride through the history of landscape painting and landscape in writing, but it barely touched upon the spiritual side of place, which needed to unpack the work of samuel palmer, paul and john nash (among others) more presciently and could have done with a fair dose of ronald blythe. meanwhile, the best highs came late in the year with the little gem that is treacle walker and the behemoth of a biography offered by paul morley in from manchester with love. both books arise from the northwest   alderley edge and manchester   and each carries with it a definite sense of place, but also of universal mysteries. with age anything fresh from alan garner is a bonus, but treacle walker isn’t a bon bon, rather it is a distillation of many of themes that have concerned him throughout his writing life. morley’s biography of tony wilson is breathless but not uncritical   it has an element of stream of consciousness, is discursive, stuffed with gamey prosody, dances around and through its subject, yet gives a credible and inspiring flavour of a flawed, driven, loyal, clever, visionary. both books filled me with the pleasure of reading, the pleasure that used to lighten up my daily bus or train journeys and i hope they have restored some of my literary mojo ready for 2022. 1. reading lolita in tehran, azar nafisi, harper perennial, 978007790210. i haven’t been feeling the love for fiction for a while now. partly because, as a bookseller, i’ve seen far too many poorly written, weakly plotted, tree wasting volumes infesting shop shelves. partially because, well, the clue’s in the name ‘fiction’   it isn’t real so what is the value to it? perhaps also, because the last year has been stranger than any novel. i’ve also experienced a lack of access to novels, the libraries being closed. fiction isn’t something i tend to buy, it is ephemeral, like films: when you’ve read it/seen it once, it is over, gone, done. hence, i borrow novels from the library. they are light entertainment. they pass the time on the bus. maybe this is why i found english literature ‘a’ level taxing. reflecting on poetry was fine: poetry is created as the art of ambiguity, using words in such an amorphous way that anyone can imbue them with their own meaning and write an essay/book/course. but novels, well they’re just utilitarian crowd pleasers. they only improve society by temporarily relieving boredom. i picked up reading lolita in tehran during that brief autumn window when charity shops were open. subtitled ‘a memoir in books’ it describes the time in the 1980s and 1990s during the iranian islamic revolution when the author was teaching western literature to students in tehran. i thought if anything was going to make the case for the value of fiction, then this might be it. it wasn’t. her insights into the work of austen, fitzgerald, james and nabakov left me cold. more fuel for the lit crit fire. however, this is also a clearly written, evocative, enlightening memoir of life under an extreme form of oppression in an ancient, highly sophisticated middle eastern country. as a woman teaching mixed genders at college and exclusively women students at home, she describes with heartfelt, precise, piercing details the complex truth concerning life in a nation where a stray hair escaping from beneath a scarf can lead to flogging. each of the seven students who met to discuss literature at her home is drawn with vivid, wistful details, the sometimes shocking stories of each of their lives being allowed to slowly reveal themselves. how they adapt to, resist, survive the fearsome censorship and violent intolerance of a fledgling society that simultaneously rates women as both third class citizens and as containing some immensely powerful, uncontrollable force capable of subverting or corrupting all around them, gives the book its urgency, its humanity, its fascination. what happens to azar nafisi, together with the survival of her students, matters far more than any neat comments about austen’s underlying themes. while ‘reading lolita in tehran’ has prompted me to think more about place and loyalty, identity and government, equality, law and enforcement it hasn’t erased my prickling suspicion that fiction is second rate writing. 2. seeing god in art, richard harries, spck, 9780281083824. thirty illustrations of great masters, icons and contemporary works, with commentary, taking us from creation to the communion of saints. richard harries loves art and has written well about it before   the passion in art being another of his books that i have enjoyed. this was disappointing for three reasons. firstly, the layout meant that there was an inordinate amount of broken words on each page, hyphenated as they turned over, which made it unattractive to read. secondly, the art works chosen were very traditional and on the whole obvious. little chance to ‘tell it slant’. finally, too often the text referred only very scantily to the art, didn’t read much into the work and only on few occasions drew something theological out of it. a good idea, but a case of ‘could do better’. 3. ‘a sparrow’s life’s as sweet as ours’, carry akroyd and john mcewen, bloomsbury, 9781472967145. john mcewen’s ornithological columns for the ‘oldie’ illustrated by carry akroyd’s screenprints. i’m a great fan of carry akroyd’s work   she evokes creatures and landscapes with maximal minimalism   clean lines, poised colours and just enough detail to lift a bird into life or a field into focus without the distractions of any extraneous clutter. mayhap she is a contemporary descendant, development, of the very english school of land, flora and fauna observers that gave us eric ravilious and john nash, amongst others. however she does it, her images sing and dance with the jizz of her subjects, while their surroundings are depicted not as decorative adiaphora, but as integral to their existence. i knew i was going to enjoy her images, what i wasn’t expecting was the light, lively and poetic touch of john mcewen’s prose which frothed with energy and information. he didn’t offer many details that were new to me, especially as there was some reliance on mark cocker’s ‘bird’s britiannica’, which i am also currently reading, however, mcewen’s telling was breezy and checkered with poetry and literary descriptions of the bird on the page. this is a lovely, restful book that i will return to again and again. 4. the way of julian of norwich: a prayer journey through lent, sheila upjohn, spck, 9780281083695. short, i’ve read it through twice already, but with plenty of insight and much to think about. julian’s visions are as radical today as they were when she wrote her book in the 1300s. no wonder she hid the manuscript then, because if she hadn’t it would most likely have been supressed by the authorities and lost to us. this is a book about both the inclusivity of divine love and the seriousness of christ’s sacrifice on the cross. the two are intimately related as julian understands that christ died not as an offering for our sin but out of pure love for us. 5. the house under the water, francis brett young, heinemann. this has been sitting on our shelves unread for twenty or so years. bought at a jumble sale in salisbury because, at the time, the author was collectable. a seven hundred page novel about the fluctuating fortunes of the last members of the tregaron family, whose ancestors had owned a hillside estate in radnorshire for 800 years. set late in the nineteenth century the plot revolves around impact of the industrial revolution on both the heart of wales and the midlands’ shires. bicycles and motorcars are key to the family’s future, but it is the damming of their valley to provide water piped overland for the growing midland cities that changes their lives irrevocably. 6. more weird things customers say in bookshops, jen campbell, constable, 9781472106339. been there, heard that   customers really do say strange things and i’m sure i’m not the only one who has been asked for ‘tess of the dormobiles’ or worked with a colleague who directed a customer, asking for primo levi’s ‘periodic table’, to women’s health. 7. a cross in the heart of god, samuel wells, canterbury press, 9781786222930. sam wells is fast becoming the next tom wright, or rowan williams, or alister mcgrath   authors so prolific that booksellers have reserved spaces for them on their ‘new titles’ stands. wells, like his mentor hauerwas, is uncompromising in his writing   in both style and content. punches will not be pulled, nor concessions made in relation to the quavering faith and intellectual inabilities of his reader. every time i finish one of his books i feel smaller, less confident in my own abilities. simultaneously, i am expanded in spirit and challenged in life. wells’s previous book on the cross, hanging by a thread, i found disappointing, but then, in reading the introduction to this one, i find out that i wasn’t the target audience. a cross in the heart of god is a corker. the title says it all. the cross isn’t a response to the fall, to sin, but was, is built into god’s being from before the beginning of time. there has always been a cross at the heart of god. god’s emptying and self giving are not add ons but integral to who god is. god has always loved us, will always love us and from the genesis of creation wanted to be with us, with us on equal terms in a relationship of true love. god with us. that’s the point. not god for us. god with us. what more do you need to know? 8. birds britannica, mark cocker and richard mabey, chatto & windus, 9780701169079. we bought the set of birds, flora and fauna britannicas as presents for my parents. when dad downsized, he gave them back to us. birds britannica has been my lunch time lockdown reading for the past year. at last, i’ve finally finished it, and it was fascinating from start to finish, even though it is fifteen years out of date and a fair amount of the material i already knew or had turned up in (openly borrowed from birds britannica) a sparrow’s life’s as sweet as ours, which i read earlier this year. it includes plenty of folk history about our island bird life, some fascinating names and stories, as well as pallet loads of statistics. many of the stats showed the downward spiral of our bird populations, which have substantially worsened since 2005 (the latest edition was published in 2020). this is no twitcher’s diary, it places birds in their social and cultural context, reminding us how many have contributed to place names, pubs and recipes. over the centuries we’ve eaten an awfully large proportion of our native wildlife. historical contributions abound, from many sources, but especially the great writer naturalists, such as gilbert white and w.h. hudson. hudson is out of fashion now, his prose can be at times turgid or florid, however he wrote some classics of rural observation and reminiscence   nature in downland and a shepherd’s life being two of my favourites   and, as a founder member of the rspb, influenced the birth of our modern conservation movement. lovely also to see janet kear quoted, whose book wildfowl and man is one of the best bird books i’ve ever read. once again, in birds britannica, we have a book that details the disjunct between humanity and the species we share this earth with. that it does so in such a beautiful, informative and entertaining way is testament not just to the skill and knowledge of the authors but also to the fragile wonders that are our resident and migrant birds   tiny lives, lived fast and under much duress. hopefully, i won’t have had time to complete the reading of the companion flora and fauna before lockdown is over and i find a new job. 9. curlew moon, mary colwell, collins, 9780008241056. 10. coming down the wye, robert gibbings, dent (1943). two blue bound books, two tales of journeying, both illustrated. curlews feature in both. one was mildly disappointing, the other was a delight. curlew moon tells of colwell’s walk across ireland and the uk to all the traditional habitats of breeding curlew. curlew breeding numbers are in freefall (although wintering migrants make it look as if there still plenty about), so you know this isn’t going to be a happy tale, however, there is something about colwell’s writing style and her interactions with others that jarred for me. i can’t quite put my finger on it, but something was out of kilter about this book. jessica holm’s expert and detailed illustrations didn’t make up for deficiencies in the text   perhaps because they were too small and too grey. colwell is passionate about doing something to change the awful wipe out of our breeding curlews, and she is getting on with that, which is great, but, for me, this book, while enlightening, sobering and evangelistic, didn’t recruit me to her specific cause. robert gibbings’s wood engravings have all the immediacy, energy and impact that was missing in jessica holm’s. they are superbly vivid illustrations that beautifully counterpoint his tale’s many warmly observed vignettes. gibbings a recounted his adventures in the same way that he created his engravings, they freely flow, yet are focussed and striking, giving a flavour of life on the route of the wye through wales. written during war time, when gibbings was in the home guard, it rattles with the hint and hiss of conflict. it is also redolent of a lost pre mechanisation agrarian world, where curlews lift from beneath your feet as you cross flower festooned meadows and redstarts nest above cottage windows. curlew moon is a reminder of stark a scorched earth of contemporary britain. coming down the wye drolly, decoratively, takes you back to the tipping point, when agricultural production began to seriously squeeze the wildness, the diversity, the goodness, out of nature. 10. jack, marilynne robinson, virago, 9780349011813. part four of the gilead novels. john ames boughton, ‘jack’, son of a presbyterian minister, and named after his father’s friend and fellow minister, john ames, is the not so young man whose ne’er do well behaviour riffles through gilead and home, disturbing the small town equilibrium. jack has been to prison, is a self confessed ‘bum’, thief, drinker and general reckless chancer. he has also fallen for a young black school teacher named della, a love that is both reciprocated and illegal. della’s father   a renowned pastor   and family are as disapproving of the match as is the prevailing white culture. pre destination clatters through the bones of jack’s life. he doesn’t want to be the way he is, he tries to live to harm others as little as possible and yet, he knows, just knows, that everything he does will have damaging consequences. above all he doesn’t want to hurt della, but then she is pregnant, her career is torn to rags and her family are about to elide her out of their history. robinson draws jack with such gentle sympathy, quietly filling in the little details of his days, that i was willing him to rise above his conception of his destiny and to feel release, contentment, safety. but even when offered a break, it isn’t to be, his honesty brings fresh downfall. jack may have done bad things, but he’s not a bad man. he’s never going to live up to the expectations be believes others (his father, his brother) have of him, yet the door of redemption is never, quite, fully closed on him. if there ever is a part five to this wonderful series then i do hope it is della’s story and that she ushers in a new future not just for jack, but also for the whole fractured, fevered, angry and divided nation. 11. reimagining britain, justin welby, bloomsbury, 9781472984975. much has changed in the world and the uk since justin welby’s first book reimagining britain was initially published in 2018, making the release of a revised and expanded second edition thoroughly worthwhile. it is a book with a bold scope, penetrating beneath layers of dis ease, inequality and division that the double blows of brexit and covid 19 have exacerbated and brought to boiling point in britain. archbishop welby unpacks some of the root causes of problems afflicting the basic building blocks of society   family, health, education, housing and economics   that have risen to discomforting prominence, while clearly showing how the ways we respond to such issues are related directly to the values we hold. this gives him an entry point to remind us of the christian principles that underpin much of our national life. and here is where the subtitle ‘foundations for hope’ comes into play. inspired by catholic social teaching, which he describes as ‘the applied outworking of the good news of jesus christ in terms of social structures and social justice’, he suggests that where this teaching is lived out society flourishes, communities grow and insecurities recede. through recourse to scripture, social teaching and lived examples, he offers hopeful templates in each key area that have the potential to refresh a united kingdom while also participating in the building of god’s kingdom. of course, while his scope is wide ranging, his suggested answers to deep rooted issues are by necessity broad brush, light on concrete policy proposals. but that, to some extent, must be so. while tackling the blight of contemporary political polarisation, this is not a political book; it (rightly i think) treads a neutral non party line, but some might find such an approach frustrating. however, this doesn’t stop welby from proffering radical solutions to contentious issues, such as housing, outlining the shape of action he believes is required, showing how it might stand up to critical examination, and highlighting where it might be beneficial in promoting unity across and through communities. the church of england’s recent report on uk housing, coming home, which was being prepared for publication while the archbishop re wrote this book, informs his thinking. he begins with the values described there: that housing should be safe, stable, sustainable, sociable and satisfying, clarifying what he means by each and going on to explain that biblical images of our flourishing in god’s presence show that ‘the purpose of housing was understood as creating communities and not merely building accommodation’. it’s about housing as homes, not investment opportunities, requiring a shift in thinking that prioritises the development of communities with thriving local economies and sustaining, life enhancing infrastructure, while also minimising significant regional disparity in house prices thus encouraging greater mobility. this in turn stimulates the economy to prosper more equally across the country. current competing housing markets, the archbishop argues, ingrain inflexibility and deep injustices that cut directly against god’s will for flourishing communities. in response he provides pointers to solutions that promote resilience, stability, solidarity, subsidiarity and equality. the impact of brexit, covid 19 and black lives matter underpins the rewrite of a book that was already asking deep questions about the direction our countries have been taking. however, two areas left me uneasy. the archbishop doesn’t substantially mention environmental issues until he addresses climate change directly nearly three quarters of the way through the book. yet unless we safeguard the integrity and the biodiversity of the planet radical reappraisals of education, housing, family, health and economics are doomed. indeed, only when changes in these areas are directly integrated with environmental matters can a sustainable world and a truly just society blossom. linked to this is the archbishop’s failure to search for economic ways forward other than capitalism. while trenchantly condemning austerity politics as a theory for the rich that crushes the poor and offering an enlightening interpretation of the parable of the talents that emphasises accountability, nowhere is there an attempt to reimagine a post capitalist world. tinkering with the capitalist model is not enough. the question needs to be asked whether an economic system whose success is predicated on the continual growth in markets, and thus in the increased use of finite resources, is compatible with environmental goals towards sustainability. these two, major, caveats aside, there is much to commend in this book as a serious attempt to bring christian principles to bear on the rebuilding of a fairer, more equitable society. its strengths lie in drawing values and practices in line with each other, focusing on the five basic building blocks of family, education, economics, housing and health as the means by which courageous, stable communities may flourish. shining prophetic light on some vital truths concerning the current state of our nation, it offers future hope made possible through attending to the vision of god’s grace, justice and love. 12. spirit of place, susan owens, thames & hudson, 9780500252307. artists and writers and the british landscape. a useful canter through the history of the arts and the landscape, which promises more than it delivers   or perhaps it wasn’t what i was hoping it would be. very interesting concerning the development of landscape in the written and visual arts. but scant regard to the ‘spirit’ part of the title, even when dealing with samuel palmer. only really begins to grow into this aspect with paul nash eric ravilious and later, with robert macfarlane and the new writers on nature and place. really misses its vocation by ignoring the way place weaves throughout the work of ronald blythe. 13. the old ways, robert macfarlane, hamish hamilton, 9780241143810. one of the best macfarlane books i’ve read, even though he is rather too in love with his own use of language. humming with the spirit of place, nash’s ‘marsh personages’ lurking in the corners of every page. elegiac, mucky, sometimes self righteous, disturbing, informative, ghostly and yet earthy. we are where we stand. we when we forget that our roots are in the soil we imperil ourselves and endanger the species we share this land with. 14. crowning the year, tom clammer, canterbury press, 9781786223395. 15. landscape liturgies, nick mayhew smith, sarah brush, canterbury press, 9781786223807. as a rural incumbent recently moved to a new benefice, i warmly welcome tom clammer’s crowning the year, a timely guide to aspects of rural ministry arising directly out of the author’s extensive experience. setting the scene by describing two contrasting gloucestershire benefices, he lays out distinctive characteristics of village church life, noting that where some see small, scattered congregations worshipping in ill equipped, costly buildings, served by dwindling and under resourced ministry teams, others find deeply pastoral, incarnational communities coterminous with local populations, church buildings that are valued signs of god with us, a higher percentage of parishioners attending than urban parishes and a significant proportion blessed with church schools. such observations form a base from which to draw a theology and ecclesiology for rural ministry with a rhythm of public prayer at its heart. i especially appreciate the application of cell church values across a rural benefice as means for exploring the challenges of balancing cell sized numbers with the perceived desire for congregational worship. this approach feeds into a helpful framework for liturgical theology, providing practical pointers pertinent to multi church contexts. when might ‘place’ take precedence over ‘story’ for instance? harvest and carol services might draw particular resonance from being embedded in their specific localities, whereas ash wednesday to pentecost’s long march to the cross and resurrection may be more effective as a journey travelled together across the benefice. also covered is the celebration of the liturgical and agricultural years in a rural setting, albeit somewhat limited by its focus chiefly on authorised anglican sources. while chris thorpe’s recent ploughshares and first fruits is referred to, there is no space for inclusion of either the staffordshire seven’s seasonal worship from the countryside or the superlative resources from the arthur rank centre’s ‘germinate’ website, both of which i regularly use alongside material with contemporary celtic origins. nevertheless, clammer’s is an immensely valuable title, serving both as a guide providing practitioners with fresh discipline and impetus, and as a reminder to the wider church of the rich potential to be garnered from contemporary ministry in rural contexts up and down the land. landscape liturgies, nick mayhew smith and sarah brush’s collection of ‘resources to celebrate and bless the earth’, which draws upon wide ranging materials from across the christian traditions, ties in well with clammer’s rural ecclesiology. where the latter urges us to move outside our buildings, here we encounter prayers and liturgies to do just that. catholic, orthodox and methodist rituals rub shoulders with syrian, celtic and saxon rites, alongside blessings for animals, outdoor spaces, trees, rivers, seas, hill and vale, agriculture and pilgrimage   a veritable feast of texts old and new, some beautiful, some lyrical, some eccentric; but all, if used judiciously, able to ‘read’ the state of our planet today. at times the authors have elided the language (allowing imprecations against demons to be re envisioned as warding off pollution for example), but always aiming to maximise contemporary relevance, and they are keen to remind us to adapt liturgies to suit given situations. although the rites collected here contain a mine of information and inspiration dating back to the early centuries of the church, they often include complex texts requiring informed and flexible handling. however, when combined with vivid and appropriate symbolic actions (sickle throwing is unlikely to pass a risk assessment!), they offer rich foundational material for the construction of profound new rituals to suit current circumstances, from the consecration of churchyard programmes to the blessing of flood defences, or even anaerobic digestors. ultimately, as robert macfarlane reminds us in the old ways, ‘landscape and nature are not there simply to be gazed at; no, they press hard upon and into our bodies and minds…’ and both these timely books go a long way in moving us from being ‘on’ to being ‘in’ our landscape and to understanding that we share the fruits of the incarnation with all creation. 16. when there were birds, roy and lesley adkins, little, brown, 9781408713570. descriptions of abundance, of skies filled with larks, vast and numerous murmurations of starlings, great lines of rooks travelling miles to nightly roosts, noted in private diaries and the public media from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, open this substantial social history of our interactions with the bird life of these isles. but early into the first chapter absence becomes as remarked upon as presence because by the 1820s commentators noticed how the increasing human population, the effects of enclosure, the clearing or draining of once inaccessible places, and subsequent planting with monoculture crops, had displaced large numbers of birds: there were fewer snipe for supper, fewer finches to cage and pest creatures   insects and rodents   had become rampant while their natural avian predators were being decimated. chapters covering birds as food, playthings, raw materials   for fuel, writing instruments, bedding   as vermin, sacred objects, fashion accoutrements and sport offer astute insights into our often highly unedifying treatment of our native fauna. in an age when the human population was small and methods of trapping relatively inefficient, a theology that saw the natural world as an endless abundance supplied by god for us to do with as we pleased had only modest effect on the sustainability of bird species; but once guns had become both effective and affordable, on top of increasingly industrialised agriculture, the impact of our hunting, poisoning, caging and displacing of birds from their natural routines and habitats became noticeably detrimental. if the twentieth century was dominated by the twin, competing tracks of chemically enhanced agri business and rising awareness of our environmental plight, then, the authors conclude in a brief postscript, this progressively detailed scientific, ecological, aesthetic and cultural understanding of the crucial parts diverse bird species play in our lives offers hope that we can make a significant difference in halting their decline. with its wide ranging, informative text, extensive notes and commendably comprehensive index, when there were birds makes its own vital contribution to our perception of our relationship with creation, providing further stimulus for us to achieve an environmental renaissance. 17. from manchester with love, paul morley, faber and faber, 9780571252497. a 600 page love story, ostensibly packaged as a biography of tony wilson   anthony h. wilson   tv presenter, situationist, founder of factory records and the haçienda, cultural originator, band manager, eccentric businessman, jag devotee, complicated, explosive, foolish, daring, spirited, spiritual, stoned. it is a love story of wilson for manchester, wilson for wilson, wilson for popular music as art that matters, morley for wilson, morley for the city he left, morley for the time when pop mattered, was revolution, was art, was life, was biblical. brilliantly cut with a thousand, thousand facets each reflecting, refracting, focussing and diffusing many of the swirling, contradictory, chaffing, genius elements of a complicated man syringing colour, vibrancy, energy, challenge through a city grey with decay. this is a great read, warty, carbuncled, polished, shiny, but murky, gleaming and glooming all at once. it isn’t a definitive biography   of man, manchester, or of the post war, pre social media age   but it evokes, illuminates, re mystifies them all. i loved it from start to finish   felt a deep sadness in the closing descriptions of the shutting down of wilson’s body as cancer took control, but it left enough sense of the gone but not forgotten to remind us all to cherish the maverick, the makers, the disturbers of the peace, the visionary. 18. treacle walker, alan garner, fourth estate, 9780008477790. a slim hardback with large print yet pooling the same intensity that has pumped through every garner book i have read. there are worlds, universes, cultures, mythologies, folk histories, belief systems packed into these 70 pages, all wrapped up in a young lad’s illness. nothing in his worlds is every quite level, the focus is always shifting and the horizon is forever hazy as one reality bleeds onto another and another. easily readable in one sitting this little novel will take much more than that to unpack and digest. liminality is the birthing stool, the cradle and womb for all of garner’s writing and there is no one who does it so convincingly and so perceptively. unsettling and lovely. 19. the man who died twice, richard osman, viking, 9780241425428. guilty pleasures time   will this be the book that gets me back into reading fiction? having enjoyed the r4 adaptation of the first thursday murder club novel, i thought i would give this a whirl. enjoyable characters, twisty, fun plotting and a satisfying, everything tied up ending. true, this is the sort of book i would normally get from the library rather than purchase in hard back, but as a bit of nonsense to end the year with it was terribly jolly and cheering. 20. music of eternity: meditations for advent with evelyn underhill, robyn wrigley carr, spck, 9780281085507. i shall need to re read and re read this book a chapter a day for sometime to come as it is full of spiritual riches and challenges. many years ago, when studying at king’s college, london, i remember being shown evelyn underhill’s notebooks and diaries by dr grace jantzen as part of a course on mysticism. over the years i have learnt a little more about underhill and have found that her writings to be perceptive, approachable but not easy, she does have a tendency to push your thinking about how, when, why we meet with god. she believes that we are all able to be in touch with god if we are prepared to put in some hard work. robyn wrigley carr offers 28 carefully constructed chapters constructed from suitable extracts of underhill’s writings, to take us on a journey into the heart of revelation. for someone writing around a hundred years ago, underhill’s thinking is very much in tune with current needs and issues. she is positive, but challenging   meeting with god requires both taking up and letting go but has the possibility of being quite transformative.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 2/3 shaw’s trailer park   i thought i saw you… (swamp song/irregular) 2/7 alexander biggs   stay with the horses (independent) 2/7 arliston   disappointment machine (independent) 2/7 annika kilkenny   me in the mud ep (awal) 2/7 biig piig   11:11 (columbia) 2/7 facs   wish defense (trouble in mind) 2/7 heartworms   glutton for punishment (speedy wunderground) 2/7 honesty   u r here (partisan) 2/7 ian fisher   go gentle (independent) 2/7 inhaler   open wide (geffen) 2/7 johnnyswim   when the war is over (big picnic) 2/7 matt pond pa   the ballad of the natural lines (sonder house) 2/7 noga   heroes in the seaweed (the audiophile society) 2/7 oklou   choke enough (true panther) 2/7 olly alexander   polari (polydor) 2/7 pit pony   dead stars (clue/emi north) 2/7 sam moss   swimming (independent) 2/7 sharon van etten & the attachment theory   sharon van etten & the attachment theory (jagjaguwar) 2/7 skeleten   mentalized (2mr) 2/7 squid   cowards (warp) 2/7 wilco   a ghost is born (expanded edition) (nonesuch) 2/7 wilder woods   curioso (dualtone) * * * 2/9 sleeper’s bell   clover (angel tapes/fire talk) 2/14 alessia cara   love & hyperbole (def jam) 2/14 art d’ecco   serene demon (paper bag) 2/14 bartees strange   horror (4ad) 2/14 brother ali   satisfied soul (mello) 2/14 cryogeyser   cryogeyser (independent) 2/14 dead gowns   it’s summer, i love you, and i’m surrounded by snow (mtn laurel) 2/14 the delines   mr. luck & ms. doom (el cortez) 2/14 denison witmer   anything at all (asthmatic kitty) 2/14 frankie sunswept & the sliver moons   nostalgia (independent) 2/14 haunted mouths   a collection of greetings (rise) 2/14 horsegirl   phonetics on and on (matador) 2/14 john glacier   like a ribbon (young) 2/14 the lumineers   automatic (dualtone) 2/14 mallrat   light hit my face like a straight right (nettwerk) 2/14 marinero   la la la (hardly art) 2/14 marshall allen   new dawn (mexican summer / week end) 2/14 melissa mary ahern   kerosene (fatcat) 2/14 mereba   the breeze grew a fire (secretly canadian) 2/14 new translations   vacation (war buddha/warner) 2/14 oracle sisters   divinations (wizard artists) 2/14 richard dawson   end of the middle (domino) 2/14 rusty williams   grand man (congrats) 2/14 saint motel   symphony in the sky (atlantic) 2/14 shygirl   club shy room 2 ep (because music) 2/14 winona fighter   my apologies to the chef (rise) 2/14 the wombats   oh! the ocean (awal) * * * 2/21 albertine sarges   girl missing (moshi moshi) 2/21 anna shoemaker   someone should stop her (+1 records) 2/21 baths   gut (basement’s basement) 2/21 ider   late to the world (nettwerk) 2/21 luke sital singh   fool’s spring (nettwerk) 2/21 martin luke brown   man oh man ! (amk) 2/21 max frost   shelby ave (nettwerk) 2/21 mild minds   gemini (foreign family) 2/21 oh my sun   apocalypse baby (independent) 2/21 sam fender   people watching (capitol) 2/21 saya gray   saya (dirty hit) 2/21 tate mcrae   so close to what (rca) 2/21 varas   eaten by worms ep (ten) 2/21 youth lagoon   rarely do i dream (fat possum) 2/21 ziggy alberts   new love (commonfolk) * * * 2/27 rebecca black   salvation (independent) 2/28 banks   off with her head (independent) 2/28 bdrmm   microtonic (rock action) 2/28 cloakroom   last leg of the human table (closed casket activities) 2/28 constant follower   the smile you send out returns to you (last night from glasgow) 2/28 cornelia murr   run to the center (22twenty) 2/28 darkside   nothing (matador) 2/28 deep sea diver   billboard heart (sub pop) 2/28 domestic drafts   only the singer (glamour gowns) 2/28 foley   that’s life, baby! (independent) 2/28 hachiku   the joys of being pure at heart (marathon artists) 2/28 koyal   breathe in. breathe out. (independent) 2/28 lisa   alter ego (rca records) 2/28 miya folick   erotica veronica (nettwerk) 2/28 mdou moctar   tears of injustice (matador) 2/28 oversize   vital signs (sharptone) 2/28 panda bear   sinister grift (domino) 2/28 polly paulusma   wildfires (one little independent) 2/28 roller derby   when the night comes (independent) 2/28 sean mcconnell   skin (metropolitan groove merchants) 2/28 serpentwithfeet   grip sequel (secretly canadian) 2/28 skinny atlas   nowhere kid (nettwerk) 2/28 yves jarvis   all cylinders (in real life) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 3/7 annie dirusso   super pedestrian (summer soup) 3/7 arny margret   i miss you, i do (one little independent) 3/7 chase petra   lullabies for dogs (wax bodega) 3/7 clara mann   rift (state51) 3/7 divorce   drive to goldenhammer (gravity / capitol) 3/7 dogpark   until the tunnel vision melts (severance/big loud rock) 3/7 errth   errth (uncle style) 3/7 fust   big ugly (dear life) 3/7 hamilton leithauser   this side of the island (glassnote) 3/7 jason isbell   foxes in the snow (southeastern) 3/7 jennie   the ruby experience (columbia records) 3/7 kedr livanskiy   myrtus myth (2mr) 3/7 lady gaga   mayhem (interscope) 3/7 maya delilah   the long way round (blue note) 3/7 moreish idols   all in the game (speedy wunderground) 3/7 sasami   blood on the silver screen (domino) 3/7 taxidermists   20247 (danger collective) 3/7 tobacco city   horses (scissor tail) 3/7 the tubs   cotton crown (trouble in mind) 3/7 two man giant squid   two man giant squid (mint 400) 3/7 vundabar   surgery and pleasure (loma vista) 3/7 will stratton   points of origin (ruination/bella union) * * * 3/14 cleopatrick   fake moon (nowhere special/thirty tigers) 3/14 clipping.   dead channel sky (sub pop) 3/14 coheed and cambria   the father of make believe (virgin) 3/14 courting   lust for life… (lower third) 3/14 coyote theory   still (nettwerk) 3/14 derya yıldırım & grup şimşek   yarın yoksa (big crown) 3/14 fredrik svabø   kingo’s treat (independent) 3/14 mia wray   hi, it’s nice to meet me (mushroom) 3/14 neal francis   return to zero (ato) 3/14 the slow readers club   out of a dream (independent) * * * 3/18 brock geiger   some nights (independent) 3/21 bathe   inside voice(s) (mnrk music group) 3/21 david ramirez   all the not so gentle reminders (blue corn) 3/21 dutch interior   moneyball (fat possum) 3/21 eliza niemi   progress bakery (tin angel) 3/21 gizmo varillas   the world in colour (sonteca) 3/21 greentea peng   tell dem it’s sunny (awal) 3/21 the horrors   night life [fiction] 3/21 james arthur   pisces (columbia) 3/21 japanese breakfast   for melancholy brunettes (& sad women) (dead oceans) 3/21 john splithoff   from from here (virgin) 3/21 lala salama   kuva susta (all that plazz) 3/21 lonnie holley   tonky (jagjaguwar) 3/21 my morning jacket   is (ato) 3/21 pictoria vark   nothing sticks (get better) 3/21 south hill experiment   earthbreaks (s/h/e) 3/21 xixa   xolo (jullian) * * * 3/28 the blue stones   metro (new weapon/thirty tigers) 3/28 bria salmena   big dog (sub pop) 3/28 butcher brown   letters from the atlantic (concord jazz) 3/28 cocorosie   little death wishes (joyful noise) 3/28 deafheaven   lonely people with power (roadrunner) 3/28 elea calvet   spurious forms (mahogany songs) 3/28 fusilier   ambush (is not music) 3/28 great grandpa   patience, moonbeam (run for cover) 3/28 half gringa   cosmovisión (independent) 3/28 hannah cohen   earthstar mountain (congrats) 3/28 lilo   blood ties (dalliance) 3/28 lucy dacus   forever is a feeling (geffen) 3/28 niis   niis world (get better) 3/28 perfume genius   glory (matador) 3/28 poptropicaslutz!   the new 925 (epitaph) 3/28 ruby gill   some kind of control (independent) 3/28 sam akpro   evenfall (anti ) 3/28 somebody’s child   when youth fades away (frenchkiss) 3/28 spellling   portrait of my heart (sacred bones) 3/28 the walters   good company (independent) 3/28 yukimi   for you (ninja tune) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 4/4 babe rainbow   slipper imp and shakaerator (p(doom)) 4/4 black country, new road   forever howlong (ninja tune) 4/4 djo   the crux (awal) 4/4 elton john & brandi carlile   who believes in angels? (interscope) 4/4 florist   jellywish (double double whammy) 4/4 heaven   dream aloud (little cloud) 4/4 isolated youth   miserere mei (birthday productions/memorials of distinction) 4/4 lily seabird   trash mountain (lame o) 4/4 linying   swim, swim (nettwerk) 4/4 miki berenyi trio   tripla (bella union) 4/4 penelope trappes   a requiem (one little independent) 4/4 σtella   adagio (sub pop) 4/4 sister ray   believer (royal mountain) 4/4 syml   nobody lives here (nettwerk) 4/4 young friend   motorcycle sound effects (nettwerk) 4/11 cassia   everyone, outside (independent) 4/11 the driver era   obsession (kartel) 4/11 magnolia park   vamp (epitaph) 4/11 röyksopp   true electric (dog triumph) 4/11 trousdale   growing pains (independent) * * * 4/17 dirty blonde   looking for trouble ep (independent) 4/18 the convenience   like cartoon vampires (winspear) 4/18 adrian younge   something about april iii (linear labs) 4/18 julien baker & torres   send a prayer my way (matador) 4/18 quickly, quickly   i heard that noise (ghostly) 4/18 tunde adebimpe   thee black boltz (sub pop) * * * 4/25 femi kuti   journey through life (partisan) 4/25 goose   everything must go (no coincidence) 4/25 laura reznek   the sewing room (mary yelling) 4/25 prima queen   the prize (submarine cat) 4/25 samia   bloodless (grand jury) 4/25 self esteem   a complicated woman (polydor) 4/25 soft loft   modern roses ([pias] recordings) 4/25 sunflower bean   mortal primetime (lucky number) 4/25 um, jennifer?   um comma jennifer question mark (final girl) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 5/2 andrew cushin   love is for everyone (lab) 5/2 blondshell   if you asked for a picture (partisan) 5/2 carriers   every time i feel afraid (brassland) 5/2 samantha crain   gumshoe (real kind) 5/9 the kooks   never/know (virgin) 5/9 spacey jane   if that makes sense (concord) 5/16 miso extra   earcandy (transgressive) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 5/23 dirty nice   planet weekend (chiverin) 5/23 eska   the ordinary life of a magic woman (amk/kartel) 5/30 shura   i got too sad for my friends (play it again sam) 1/5 bad bunny   debí tirar más fotos (rimas ent) 1/8 ethel cain   perverts (daughters of cain) 1/8 party nails   pillow talk (eye knee) 1/10 camille schmidt   nude #9 (six castle road) 1/10 franz ferdinand   the human fear (domino) 1/10 lambrini girls   who let the dogs out (city slang) 1/10 mon rovîa   act 4: atonement (nettwerk) 1/10 moonchild sanelly   full moon (transgressive) 1/10 ringo starr   look up (lost highway) 1/10 skinner   new wave vaudeville (faction) 1/10 zzzahara   spiral your way out (lex) * * * 1/13 himalion   wysiati (independent) 1/15 lake   bucolic gone (don giovanni) 1/16 some fear   some fear (rite field) 1/17 crys matthews   reclamation (independent) 1/17 delights   if heaven looks a little like this (modern sky) 1/17 delivery   force majeure (heavenly) 1/17 flora hibberd   swirl (22twenty) 1/17 huxlii   odds and ends, but mostly ends ep (majesticsilk) 1/17 jamine.4.t   you are the morning (saddest factory) 1/17 kyles tolone   youth (independent) 1/17 later.   golden bay (cookie) 1/17 lots of hands   into a pretty room (fire talk) 1/17 mac miller   balloonerism (warner) 1/17 mary eliza   spider (independent) 1/17 the new mourning   songs of confusion (independent) 1/17 pigeon pit   crazy arms (ernest jenning) 1/17 rose gray   louder, please (play it again sam) 1/17 son lux   risk of make believe (city slang) 1/17 songhoy blues   héritage (transgressive) 1/17 sophie jamieson   i still want to share (bella union) 1/17 the weather station   humanhood (fat possum) 1/17 zora   belladonna (get better) * * * 1/24 anna b savage   you & i are earth (city slang) 1/24 benjamin booker   lower (fire next time/thirty tigers) 1/24 bilk   essex, drugs and rock and roll (scruff of the neck) 1/24 blue violet   faux animaux (me & my/high head) 1/24 cecilia castlemen   cecilia castlemen (glassnote) 1/24 charm school   debt forever (surprise mind) 1/24 dilettante   life of the party (launchpad+/emi north) 1/24 drew & ellie holcomb   memory bank (magnolia) 1/24 fka twigs   eusexua (young) 1/24 flipturn   burnout days (dualtone) 1/24 jordan adetunji   a jaguar’s dream (300/warner uk) 1/24 leo sawikin   till you’re somebody else (independent) 1/24 mogwai   the bad fire (rock action) 1/24 ten fé   still in love (some kinda love) 1/24 tokyo tea room   no rush (nice guys) * * * 1/27 pink siifu   black’!antique (dynamite hill) 1/31 bonnie “prince” billy   the purple bird (no quarter) 1/31 canty   dim binge mixtape (full time hobby) 1/31 christian sean   hallelujah showers (bon sound) 1/31 circa waves   death & love pt. 1 (lower third) 1/31 cut the kids in half   what we became (independent) 1/31 est gee   i ain’t feeling you (cmg/interscope records) 1/31 eterna   debunker (section1) 1/31 everyone says hi   everyone says hi (independent) 1/31 gus englehorn   the hornbook (secret city) 1/31 joe mcphee   i’m just say’n (smalltown supersound) 1/31 the laughing chimes   whispers in the speech machine (slumberland) 1/31 liza lo   familiar (gearbox) 1/31 l.s. dunes   violet (fantasy) 1/31 maribou state   hallucinating love (ninja tune/inertia) 1/31 mike   showbiz! (10k) 1/31 penny and sparrow   lefty (thirty tigers) 1/31 the weeknd   hurry up tomorrow (xo/republic) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); january 12 album releases 1/12 lily seabird   alas, (independent) 1/12 harrison storm   wonder, won’t you? (nettwerk music group) 1/12 marika hackman   big sigh (chrysalis records) 1/12 the vaccines   pick up full of pink carnations (thirty tigers) 1/12 vacations   no place like home (nettwerk music group) 1/12 nailah hunter   lovegaze (fat possum) 1/12 wild child   end of the world (reba’s ranch records) 1/12 kid cudi   insano (republic records) january 19 album releases 1/19 keyon harrold   foreverland (concord jazz) 1/19 swimming bell   charlie (permanent records) 1/19 lil dicky   penith (the dave soundtrack) (bmg) 1/19 green day   saviors (warner records) 1/19 brown horse   reservoir (loose music) 1/19 eliza mclamb   going through it 1/19 sleater kinney   little rope (loma vista recordings) january 26 album releases 1/26 courting   new last name (lower third) 1/26 future islands   people who aren’t there anymore (4ad) 1/26 goth babe   lola (mom + pop music) 1/26 ismay   desert pavement (independent) 1/26 junodream   pools of colour (awal) 1/26 katy kirby   blue raspberry (anti  records) 1/26 large brush collection   off center (independent) 1/26 mall girl   pure love (jansen records) 1/26 newdad   madra (atlantic records) 1/26 the smile   wall of eyes (xl recordings) 1/26 ty segall   three bells (drag city) 1/29 conchúr white   swirling violets (bella union) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); february 2 album releases 2/2 britti   hello, i’m britti (easy eye sound) 2/2 giant rooks   how have you been? (mercury / republic records) 2/2 joe wong   mere survival (independent) 2/2 morgxn   beacon (nettwerk music group) 2/2 shannen james   patchwork 2/2 the last dinner party   prelude to ecstasy (island records) february 9 album releases 2/9 1999 write the future   hella (˃̣̣̥╭╮˂̣̣̥) ✧ ♡ ‧º·˚: (88rising / rca records) 2/9 brittany howard   what now (island records) 2/9 chelsea wolfe   she reaches out to she reaches out to she (loma vista recordings) 2/9 cj pandit   one lost english boy (lost language) 2/9 declan mckenna   what happened to the beach? (tomplicated records) 2/9 katelyn tarver   quitter (nettwerk music group) 2/9 loving   any light (last gang records/mnrk) 2/9 madi diaz   weird faith (anti ) 2/9 mk.gee   two star & the dream police (r&r digital) 2/9 royel otis   pratts & pain (ourness) 2/9 tom snowdon   lonely tree (pieeater) february 16 album releases 2/16 daniel ellsworth & the great lakes   high life (deer head music) 2/16 danielle durack   escape artist (independent) 2/16 friko   where we’ve been, where we go from here (ato records) 2/16 frontier ruckus   on the northline (loose music) 2/16 idles   tangk (partisan records) 2/16 jordan mackampa   welcome home, kid! (awal) 2/16 middle kids   faith crisis pt 1 (lucky number) 2/16 mother mother   grief chapter (warner records) 2/16 san fermin   arms (better company records) 2/16 serpentwithfeet   grip (secretly canadian) 2/16 talk show   effigy (missing piece records) 2/16 varsity   souvenirs (independent) february 23 album releases 2/23 allie x   girl with no face (twin music inc) 2/23 colouring   love to you, mate (bella union) 2/23 erick the architect   i’ve never been here before (architect recording company) 2/23 ghetts   on purpose, with purpose (warner music uk) 2/23 idkhow   gloom division (concord records) 2/23 jazmin bean   traumatic livelihood (interscope records) 2/23 little kid   a million easy payments (orindal records) 2/23 mgmt   loss of life (mom+pop) 2/23 psymon spine   head body connector (northern spy records) 2/23 red rum club   western approaches (modern sky uk) 2/23 the snuts   millennials (happy artist records) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); march 1 album releases 3/1 abby sage   the rot (nettwerk music group) 3/1 dekker   future ghosts (useful fictions) 3/1 faye webster   underdressed at the symphony (secretly canadian) 3/1 games we play   life’s going great (fueled by ramen / dcd2) 3/1 hollow coves   nothing to lose (nettwerk music group) 3/1 lake j   dizzy (independent) 3/1 the narcotix   dying (independent) 3/1 rip dunes   rip dunes (independent) 3/1 san cisco   under the light (nettwerk music group) 3/1 yard act   where’s my utopia? (republic records) march 8 album releases 3/8 amelia coburn   between the moon and the milkman (independent) 3/8 ariana grande   eternal sunshine (republic records) 3/8 bleachers   bleachers (dirty hit) 3/8 brother bird   another year (easy does it records) 3/8 haux   blue angeles (ultra records) 3/8 the jesus and mary chain   glasgow eyes (fuzz club records) 3/8 konradsen   michael’s book on bears (777 music) 3/8 krooked kings   shiver (nobody gets it records) 3/8 lake saint daniel   small thoughts 3/8 moor mother   the great bailout (anti  records) 3/8 the northern belle   bats in the attic (die with your boots on records) 3/8 slow hollows   bullhead (danger collective) 3/8 torrey   torrey (slumberland records) 3/8 tomato flower   no (ramp local) march 15 album releases 3/15 fetch tiger   walking to camera (independent) 3/15 the fourth wall   return forever (devilduck records) 3/15 gouge away   deep sage (deathwish inc.) 3/15 kacey musgraves   deeper well (interscope records / mca nashville) march 22 album releases 3/22 adrianne lenker   bright future (4ad) 3/22 bendigo fletcher   two things at once (elektra) 3/22 brimheim   ratking (tambourhinoceros) 3/22 close talker   the sprawl (slow weather) 3/22 doris club   there’s still time (nettwerk music group) 3/22 fletcher   in search of the antidote (capitol records) 3/22 francis of delirium   lighthouse (dalliance recordings) 3/22 gary clark jr.   jpeg raw (warner records) 3/22 good morning   good morning seven (polyvinyl records) 3/22 julia holter   something in the room she moves (domino records) 3/22 lana winterhalt   recovering theatre kid (independent) 3/22 lauran hibberd   girlfriend material (virgin music) 3/22 rosali   bite down (merge records) 3/22 rosie tucker   utopia now! (sentimental records) 3/22 saint saviour   sunseeker (vlf records) 3/22 sam evian   plunge (flying cloud recordings) 3/22 shakira   las mujeres ya no lloran (sony music) 3/22 the staves   all now (nonesuch records) 3/22 the veronicas   gothic summer (big noise music group) 3/22 the wandering hearts   mother (chrysalis records) 3/22 waxahatchee   tigers blood (anti ) march 29 album releases 3/29 a country western   life on the lawn (crafted sounds) 3/29 beyoncé   cowboy carter (parkwood entertainment / columbia records) 3/29 gamblers   pulverizer (independent) 3/29 harmless   springs eternal (nettwerk music group) 3/29 holiday ghosts   coat of arms (fatcat records) 3/29 jeremiah fraites   piano piano 2 (dualtone records) 3/29 love fame tragedy   life is a killer (bright antenna records) 3/29 niamh bury   yellow roses (claddagh records / umi) 3/29 peel   acid star (innovative leisure) 3/29 teens in trouble   what’s mine (asian man records) 3/29 yot club   rufus (amuse) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); april 5 album releases 4/4 arsun   babe i hear thunder in your heart (dirty laundry music) 4/5 beatenberg   the great fire of beatenberg (leafy outlook) 4/5 the black keys   ohio players (nonesuch/warner records) 4/5 bnny   one million love songs (fire talk) 4/5 dana gavanski   late slap (full time hobby) 4/5 drahla   angeltape (captured tracks) 4/5 grace cummings   ramona (ato records) 4/5 gustaf   package pt. 2 (royal mountain records) 4/5 katie pruitt   mantras (rounder records) 4/5 khruangbin   a la sala (dead oceans) 4/5 lizzy mcalpine   older (rca records) 4/5 maggie rose   no one gets out alive (big loud records) 4/5 medium build   country (slowplay / island records) 4/5 marcus king   mood swings (american / republic records) 4/5 motel breakfast   i promise i’m having fun (independent) 4/5 mount kimbie   the sunset violent (warp records) 4/5 novo amor   collapse list (allpoints) 4/5 ritchie   triple digits [112] (independent) 4/5 sinkane   we belong (city slang) 4/5 vampire weekend   only god was above us (columbia records) 4/5 x ambassadors   townie (virgin music group) april 12 album releases 4/12 aaron lee tasjan   stellar evolution (blue élan) 4/12 asha jefferies   ego ride (nettwerk music group) 4/12 bad bad hats   bad bad hats (don giovanni records) 4/12 the ballroom thieves   sundust (nettwerk music group) 4/12 bodega   our brand could be yr life (chrysalis records) 4/12 buzzard buzzard buzzard   skinwalker (communion records) 4/12 english teacher   this could be texas (island records) 4/12 the feeling   san vito (kartel music group) 4/12 girl in red   i’m doing it again baby! (columbia records) 4/12 humbird   right on (nettwerk music group) 4/12 louisa stancioff   when we were looking (yep roc records) 4/12 mae krell   (i think) i might be grown (independent) 4/12 maggie rogers   don’t forget me (capitol records) 4/12 melts   field theory (fuzz club) 4/12 metz   up on gravity hill (sub pop) 4/12 minor moon   the light up waltz (ruination record co.) april 19 album releases 4/18 dog park   festina lente (géographie) 4/19 a certain ratio   it all comes down to this (mute records) 4/19 cloud nothings   final summer (pure noise records) 4/19 emily magpie   there are other forms of strength (def pressé) 4/19 floral couches   xtra mild (awal) 4/19 griefcat   late stage capitalism (independent) 4/19 kindsight   no shame no fame (rama lama records) 4/19 local natives   but i’ll wait for you (loma vista recordings) 4/19 the melvins   tarantula heart (liberator music) 4/19 pearl jam   dark matter (monkeywrench records / republic records) 4/19 pillow queens   name your sorrow (royal mountain records) 4/19 taylor swift   the tortured poets department (republic records) april 26 album releases 4/26 babehoven   water’s here in you (double double whammy) 4/26 blitz vega   northern gentlemen (futuresonic records) 4/26 devarrow   a long & distant wave (paper bag records) 4/26 hovvdy   hovvdy (arts & crafts records) 4/26 iron & wine   light verse (sub pop) 4/26 jess glynne   jess (emi records) 4/26 maria chiara argiró   closer (innovative leisure) 4/26 microwave   let’s start degeneracy (pure noise records) 4/26 nisa   shapeshifting (tender loving empire) 4/26 porij   teething (play it again sam) 4/26 the lostines   meet the lostines (independent) 4/30 kitty coen   hellcat (independent) may 3 album releases 5/3 blushing   sugarcoat (kanine records) 5/3 brookside mall   no more fragrant thoughts (independent) 5/3 corella   once upon a weekend (believe) 5/3 dea matrona   for your sins (independent) 5/3 dua lipa   radical optimism (warner music group) 5/3 frank turner   undefeated (xtra mile recordings) 5/3 hana vu   romanticism (ghostly international) 5/3 home counties   exactly as it seems (submarine cat records) 5/3 jharis yokley   sometimes, late at night (rainbow blonde records) 5/3 kamasi washington   fearless movement (young / remote control records) 5/3 lemoncello   lemoncello (claddagh records) 5/3 mehro   trauma lullabies (heroine music group) 5/3 rachel chinouriri   what a devastating turn of events (elektra) 5/3 néomí   somebody’s daughter ([pias]) 5/3 sia   reasonable woman (monkey puzzle / atlantic records) 5/3 snarls   with love, (take this to heart records) 5/3 willow   empathogen (three six zero and gamma) may 10 album releases 5/10 amen dunes   death jokes (sub pop) 5/10 andra day   cassandra (cherish) (warner records) 5/10 angus & julia stone   cape forestier (play it again sam) 5/10 bibi club   feu de garde (secret city records) 5/10 dehd   poetry (fat possum) 5/9 friday pilots club   nowhere (independent) 5/10 hot water music   vows (equal vision records) 5/10 jordan rakei   the loop (verve records) 5/10 josienne clarke   parenthesis i (corduroy punk records) 5/10 joy guidry   amen (whited sepulchre records) 5/10 judah & the lion   the process (cletus the van) 5/10 karin ann   through the telescope (3amrecords) 5/10 kings of leon   can we please have fun (lovetap records / capitol records) 5/10 memorial   redsetter (real kind records) 5/10 milan ring   mangos (astral people) 5/10 rainbow kitten surprise   love hate music box (elektra entertainment) 5/10 shannon & the clams   the moon is in the wrong place (easy eye sound) 5/10 vicky farewell   give a damn (mac’s record label) 5/10 villagers   the golden time (domino records) 5/10 xana   the sex was good until it wasn’t (independent) may 17 album releases 5/17 american sigh   virtue signal (independent) 5/17 ani difranco   unprecedented sh!t (righteous babe records) 5/17 billie eilish   hit me hard and soft (darkroom / interscope records) 5/17 blitzen trapper   100’s of 1000’s, millions of billions (yep roc records) 5/17 cage the elephant   neon pill (rca records) 5/17 guster   ooh la la (ocho mule records) 5/17 joywave   permanent pleasure (cultco music / hollywood records) 5/17 of montreal   lady on the cusp (polyvinyl) 5/17 phoebe go   marmalade (awal) 5/17 sasha alex sloan   me again (sue perb records / hills artists / virgin music) 5/17 slash   orgy of the damned (gibson records) 5/17 thomas powers   a tyrant crying in private (sensible anomie) 5/17 twenty one pilots   clancy (fueled by ramen) 5/17 victoria victoria   sweetest ache (independent) 5/17 zayn   room under the stairs (mercury / republic records) may 24 album releases 5/23 linn koch emmery   borderline iconic (boys tears) 5/23 sedona   getting into heaven (independent) 5/24 bess atwell   light sleeper (real kind records) 5/24 cosmo’s midnight   stop thinking start feeling (rca records) 5/24 diiv   frog in boiling water (fantasy records) 5/24 field guide   rootin’ for ya (birthday cake records) 5/24 finom   not god (joyful noise recordings) 5/24 la luz   news of the universe (sub pop) 5/24 luke francis   saguaro (independent) 5/24 nathy peluso   grasa (5020 records / sony music) 5/24 vince staples   dark times (def jam recordings) 5/31 arooj aftab   night reign (verve) 5/31 becky hill   believe me now? (polydor records / eko records) 5/31 esy tadesse   ahadu (fpe records) 5/31 habibi   dreamachine (kill rock stars) 5/31 hailaker   serenity, now (believe) 5/31 idaho   lapse (arts & crafts) 5/31 imogen clark   the art of getting through (independent) 5/31 jon muq   flying away (easy eye sound) 5/31 joshua epithet   boys and their video cameras (liberator music) 5/31 keaton henson   somnambulant cycles (mercury kx) 5/31 lucius   wildewoman (the new recordings) (fantasy records) 5/31 lucy kruger & the lost boys   a human home (unique records / metropolis records) 5/31 the marías   submarine (nice life recording company / atlantic records) 5/31 maya hawke   chaos angel (mom + pop music) 5/31 niamh regan   come as you are (faction records) 5/31 ruby waters   what’s the point (independent) 5/31 tim atlas   enchanté (nettwerk music group) 5/31 winnetka bowling league   sha la la (local weather / mddn records) june 7 album releases 6/6 frankie bird   twenty something (independent) 6/7 alfie templeman   radiosoul (chess club records) 6/7 alisa amador   multitudes (honest magic records / thirty tigers) 6/7 angélica garcia   gemelo (partisan records) 6/7 bathe alone   i don’t do humidity (nettwerk music group) 6/7 blair gun   there are no rival clones here (enabler no. 6 / sonablast) 6/7 bonny light horseman   keep me on your mind/see you free (jagjaguwar) 6/7 bloomsday   heart of the artichoke (bayonet records) 6/7 bon jovi   forever (island records) 6/7 bored at my grandmas house   show & tell (clue records / emi north) 6/7 carly pearce   hummingbird (big machine records) 6/7 charli xcx   brat (atlantic records) 6/7 evan honer   fighting for (cloverdale records) 6/7 french cassettes   benzene (tender loving empire) 6/7 ginger winn   stop motion (keep good company records) 6/7 goat girl   below the waste (rough trade / remote control records) 6/7 good looks   lived here for a while (keeled scales) 6/7 kaytranada   timeless (rca records) 6/7 l’impératrice   pulsar (microqlima) 6/7 laura misch   sample the earth (one little independent records) 6/7 logan lynn   softcore (kill rock stars) 6/7 lølø   falling for robots and wishing i was one (hopeless records) 6/7 michele ducci   sive (monotreme records) 6/7 razor braids   big wave (independent) 6/7 sabrina song   you could stay in one spot, and i’d love you the same (independent) 6/7 tems   born in the wild (since ‘93 / rca records) june 14 album releases 6/14 blvck hippie   basketball camp (the record machine) 6/14 the decemberists   as it ever was, so it will be again (yabb records / thirty tigers) 6/14 fana hues   moth (bright antenna records) 6/14 feet   make it up (sub cat records) 6/14 hermanos gutiérrez   sonido cósmico (easy eye sound) 6/14 hockey dad   rebuild repeat (farmer & the owl) 6/14 infinity song   metamorphosis complete (roc nation) 6/14 james vincent mcmorrow   wide opens, horses (nettwerk music group) 6/14 jelani aryeh   the sweater club (ballona record co / imperial music) 6/14 kneecap   fine art (heavenly recordings) 6/14 las nubes   tormentas malsanas (sweat records records) 6/14 lindsey stirling   duality (concord records) 6/14 lullanas   pretty lies & time machines (nettwerk music group) 6/14 meghan trainor   timeless (epic records) 6/14 moby   always centered at night (mute records) 6/14 rjd2   visions out of limelight (rj’s electrical connections) 6/14   ~   searching (luaka bop) 6/14 walt disco   the warping (lucky number) june 21 album releases 6/20 juice mazelee   here now n forever (independent) 6/21 alice ivy   do what makes you happy (helix records) 6/21 been stellar   scream from new york, ny (dirty hit) 6/21 gracie abrams   the secret of us (interscope) 6/21 lake street dive   good together (fantasy records) 6/21 lawrence   family business (beautiful mind) 6/21 lola young   this wasn’t meant for you anyway (island records) 6/21 megan winsor   intermission (independent) 6/21 the mysterines   afraid of tomorrows (fiction records) 6/21 pond   stung! (spinning top records) 6/21 rui gabriel   compassion (carpark records) 6/21 talker   i’m telling you the truth (independent) june 28 album releases 6/25 jae soto   leave the light on (switch hit records) 6/28 aaron frazer   into the blue (dead oceans) 6/28 camila cabello   c,xoxo (interscope records) 6/28 channel tres   head rush (rca records) 6/28 daniel nunnelee   june, baby (one riot) 6/28 dex green   imaginary war (3sirens music group) 6/28 the felice brothers   valley of abandoned songs (million stars) 6/28 gabriel birnbaum   patron saint of tireless losers (western vinyl) 6/28 greek   accelerator (independent) 6/28 hiatus kaiyote   love heart cheat code (brainfeeder records / ninja tune) 6/28 homeshake   horsie (shhoamkee) 6/28 imagine dragons   loom (kidinakorner / interscope) 6/28 leila sunier   too big for right now (independent) 6/28 loma   how will i live without a body? (sub pop) 6/28 mabe fratti   sentir que no sabes (unheard of hope) 6/28 megan thee stallion   megan (hot girl productions) 6/28 milly   your own becoming (dangerbird records) 6/28 nathaniel rateliff & the night sweats   south of here (stax records) 6/28 people i love   people i love (vhs records) 6/28 phillip jon taylor   de nada (wish fulfillment press) 6/28 queen of jeans   all again (memory music) 6/28 redd kross   redd kross (in the red records) 6/28 silverada   silverada (prairie rose records) 6/28 sour widows   revival of a friend (exploding in sound records) 6/28 storefront church   ink & oil (independent) 6/28 towa bird   american hero (interscope records) 6/28 waash   waash (light organ records) 6/28 washed out   notes from a quiet life (sub pop) july 5 album releases 7/4 zach bryan   the great american bar scene (warner records) 7/5 burr island   days dreamt (left foot records) 7/5 eves karydas   burnt tapes (independent) july 12 album releases 7/10 smooth rogers   roger that! (independent) 7/12 armlock   seashell angel lucky charm (run for cover records) 7/12 bette smith   goodthing (independent) 7/12 brijean   macro (ghostly international) 7/12 cassandra jenkins   my light, my destroyer (dead oceans) 7/12 cassandra lewis   lost in a dream (elektra records / low country sound) 7/12 china bears   participation trophy (fierce panda records) 7/12 cigarettes after sex   x’s (partisan records) 7/12 clairo   charm (virgin music group) 7/12 donovan woods   things were never good if they’re not good (end times music) 7/12 font   strange burden (acrophase records) 7/12 hannah mohan   time is a walnut (egghunt records) 7/12 phish   evolve (phish inc) 7/12 tayla parx   many moons, many suns (taylamade records) 7/12 travis   l.a. times (bmg) 7/12 ynys   dosbarth nos (night class) (libertino records) july 19 album releases 7/19 beta radio   waiting for the end to come (nettwerk music group) 7/19 childish gambino   bando stone & the new world (rca records) 7/19 glass animals   i love you so f***ing much (republic records) 7/19 gum / ambrose kenny smith   ill times (p(doom) records) 7/19 highly suspect   as above, so below (roadrunner/300/elektra) 7/19 lava la rue   starface (dirty hit) 7/19 major murphy   fallout (winspear) 7/19 role model   kansas anymore (interscope records) july 26 album releases 7/23 alex winston   bingo! (rat rizzo records) 7/24 earthquake lights   signs of life (independent) 7/25 abbie ozard   everything still worries me (house anxiety) 7/25 coral moons   summer of u (better company records) 7/26 cults   to the ghosts (imperial) 7/26 elsy wameyo   saint sinner (independent) 7/26 fancy gap   fancy gap (ghost choir records) 7/26 ferry townes   side effects of happiness (licorice pizza records) 7/26 joshua bassett   the golden years (warner records) 7/26 little mystery   little mystery (ruination record co.) 7/26 nightshift   homosapien (trouble in mind) 7/26 maita   want (fluff & gravy records) 7/26 ray lamontagne   long way home (liula records) 7/26 the red clay strays   made by these moments (rca records) 7/26 sinai vessel   i sing (keeled scales) 7/26 wild rivers   never better (nettwerk music group) august 2 album releases 8/1 arto vaun   stuck inside a map (independent) 8/2 anberlin   vega (equal vision records) 8/2 blood   loving you backwards (ramp local) 8/2 brigitte calls me baby   the future is our way out (ato records) 8/2 footballhead   before i die (tiny engines) 8/2 jack white   no name (third man records) 8/2 khalid   sincere (right hand music group/rca records) 8/2 orville peck   stampede (warner music) 8/2 personal trainer   still willing (bella union) 8/2 samm henshaw   for someone, somewhere, who isn’t us (dorm seven / awal) 8/2 the smashing pumpkins   aghori mhori mei (martha’s music / thirty tigers) 8/2 tones and i   beautifully ordinary (elektra records) august 9 album releases 8/7 themind   dancing while crying in the middle of nowhere (a terrible thing to waste) 8/9 amos lee   transmissions (hoagiemouth records / thirty tigers) 8/9 aquilo   a quiet invitation to a hard conversation (awal) 8/9 campfire social   they sound the same underwater (popty ping recording company) 8/9 dice   midnight zoo (tone city records) 8/9 florence clementine   one mile upstream (preserve artists) 8/9 louis cole   nothing (brainfeeder) 8/9 mal not bad   this is your new life (independent) 8/9 never ending fall   american disco (create music group) 8/9 rae khalil   crybaby (def jam recordings) 8/9 ravyn lenae   bird’s eye (atlantic records) august 16 album releases 8/16 amy shark   sunday sadness (wonderlick / sony music australia / rca records) 8/16 beabadoobee   this is how tomorrow moves (dirty hit) 8/16 charly bliss   forever (lucky number) 8/16 horse jumper of love   disaster trick (run for cover records) 8/16 kalisway   a kid from toronto (independent) 8/16 lesibu grand   triggered (kill rock stars) 8/16 matty   pops (lex records) 8/16 marlin’s dreaming   hirl (ditto music) 8/16 maude latour   sugar water (warner records) 8/16 ok cowgirl   couldn’t save us from my gut (easy does it records) 8/16 post malone   f 1 trillion (mercury records/republic records) 8/16 rosie lowe   lover, other (blue flowers music) 8/16 tama gucci   notes to self (sinderlyn) 8/16 veronica lewis   too late for tears (moonwink records / symphonic) 8/16 wishy   triple seven (winspear) august 23 album releases 8/21 peel dream magazine   rose main reading room (top shelf records) 8/21 william harries graham   annie’s house (independent) 8/23 andrew combs   dream pictures (independent) 8/23 closebye   hammer of my own (independent) 8/23 dhruv   private blizzard (little worry / rca records) 8/23 dutch criminal record   novium (antifragile music) 8/23 emily wurramara   nara (abc music) 8/23 emma russack   about the girl (dinosaur city records) 8/23 fontaines d.c.   romance (xl recordings) 8/23 fruition   how to make mistakes (independent) 8/23 geneva jacuzzi   triple fire (dais records) 8/23 gift   illuminator (captured tracks) 8/23 gilligan moss   speaking across time (foreign family collective) 8/23 illuminati hotties   power (hopeless records) 8/23 jordan lindley   maybe it’ll all work out (independent) 8/23 lovelytheband   lovelytheband (happy accident records / vydia) 8/23 luna li   when a thought grows wings (in real life / awal) 8/23 m.a.g.s.   creator (smartpunk records) 8/23 montell fish   charlotte (virgin music) 8/23 the national parks   wild spirit (independent) 8/23 oh he dead   ugly (wally baba records) 8/23 ruthie foster   mileage (sun label group) 8/23 sabrina carpenter   short n’ sweet (island records) 8/23 sam weber   clear + plain (sonic unyon records) 8/23 sofi tukker   bread (independent) 8/23 spring silver   don’t you think it’s strange? (independent) 8/23 sycco   zorb (future classic) 8/23 teenage dads   majordomo (chugg music) 8/23 thee heart tones   forever & ever (big crown records) august 30 album releases 8/30 becca stevens   maple to paper (groundup) 8/30 big sean   better me than you (def jam recordings) 8/30 bench press   personal best (poison city records) 8/30 david kushner   dichotomy (miserable music group / virgin records) 8/30 kid dakota   praegustator (graveface records) 8/30 leyya   half asleep (ink music) 8/30 los bitchos   talkie talkie (city slang) 8/30 marianas trench   haven (604 records / warner music canada) 8/30 mondo cozmo   it’s principle! (last gang records) 8/30 paris paloma   cacophony (nettwerk music group) 8/30 sima cunningham   high roller (ruination record co.) 8/30 valley   water the flowers, pray for a garden (capitol records / universal music canada) 8/30 why bonnie   wish on the bone (fire talk) 8/30 wunderhorse   midas (communion / mick music) september 6 album releases 9/3 cheridomingo   shapeshift (independent) 9/3 rachel platten   i am rachel platten (independent) 9/6 the airborne toxic event   glory (little tokyo) 9/6 amy allen   amy allen (awal) 9/6 ashe   willson (mom+pop) 9/6 claude fountaine   la mer (innovative leisure) 9/6 david gilmour   luck and strange (sony music) 9/6 dummy   free energy (trouble in mind) 9/6 fat dog   woof. (domino records) 9/6 fred again..   ten days (warner music) 9/6 gooseberry   all my friends are cattle (independent) 9/6 hinds   viva hinds (lucky number) 9/6 honne   ouch (smile more recordings / awal) 9/6 the howl & the hum   same mistake twice (miserable disco) 9/6 jamie sutherland   the world as it used to be (frictionless music) 9/6 mercury rev   born horses (bella union) 9/6 midwife   no depression in heaven (the flenser) 9/6 mj lenderman   manning fireworks (anti  records) 9/6 public opinion   painted on smile (convulse records) 9/6 sarah kinsley   escaper (verve records) 9/6 shovels & rope   something is working up above my head (dualtone records) 9/6 wayne graham   bastion (hickman holler records/thirty tigers) september 13 album releases 9/12 drew holcomb & the neighbors   strangers no more volume two (magnolia music) 9/13 bones uk   soft (sumerian records) 9/13 chance peña   ever shifting, continual blossoming (onerpm) 9/13 coin   i’m not afraid of music anymore (10k projects) 9/13 dayglow   dayglow (republic records) 9/13 deadletter   hysterical strength (so recordings) 9/13 divine sweater   a time for everything (better company records) 9/13 dora jar   no way to relax when you are on fire (island records) 9/13 foreign fields   what it cost (nettwerk music group) 9/13 fousheé   pointy heights (rca records) 9/13 gia ford   transparent things (chrysalis records) 9/13 hataałii   waiting for a sign (dangerbird records) 9/13 hello mary   emita ox (frenchkiss records) 9/13 hyper gal   after image (skin graft records) 9/13 jade hairpins   get me the good stuff (merge records) 9/13 julie   my anti aircraft friend (atlantic records) 9/13 lee dewyze   gone for days (independent) 9/13 lily kershaw   pain & more (nettwerk music group) 9/13 lunar vacation   everything matters, everything’s fire (keeled scales) 9/13 nilüfer yanya   my method actor (ninja tune) 9/13 the rare occasions   through moonshot eyes (independent) 9/13 rett smith   a weighted remorse (imperial/republic records) 9/13 rgb   a place for lovers (independent) 9/13 snow patrol   the forest is the path (polydor records) 9/13 suki waterhouse   memoir of a sparklemuffin (sub pop) 9/13 talib kweli & j. rawls   the confidence of knowing (javotti media / fat beats distribution) 9/13 tom meighan   roadrunner (blue rocket records) 9/14 sans soucis   circumnavigating georgia (decca records) september 20 album releases 9/20 blossoms   gary (odd sk recordings) 9/20 bright eyes   five dice, all threes (dead oceans) 9/20 david c clements   the garden (third bar records) 9/20 fidlar   surviving the dream (independent) 9/20 jake bugg   a modern day distraction (arista records) 9/20 jamie xx   in waves (young / remote control records) 9/20 jj wilde   vices (black box recordings) 9/20 joan as police woman   lemons, limes and orchids (play it again sam) 9/20 kat von d   my side of the mountain (independent) 9/20 kassi ashton   made from the dirt (mca nashville) 9/20 katy j pearson   someday, now (heavenly recordings) 9/20 katy perry   143 (capitol records) 9/20 keith urban   high (hit red records/capitol records nashville) 9/20 lea thomas   cosmos forever (triple dolphin records) 9/20 lutalo   the academy (winspear) 9/20 neon trees   sink your teeth (round hill records) 9/20 pale waves   smitten (dirty hit) 9/20 photay   windswept (mexican summer) 9/20 the rubens   soda (mushroom music) 9/20 sammy rae & the friends   something for everybody (nettwerk) 9/20 st. lundi   the island (good taste recordings) 9/20 sunset rubdown   always happy to explode (pronounced kroog) 9/20 tasha   all this and so much more (bayonet records) 9/20 theo kandel   eating & drinking & being in love (nettwerk music group) 9/20 the voidz   like all before you (cult records) 9/20 wilderado   talker (bright antenna records) september 27 album releases 9/26 nathan jacques   dark wanderer and the bounty heart (hidden mountain records) 9/27 adeline hotel   whodunnit (ruination record co.) 9/27 albin lee meldau   discomforts (mayfly / glassnote) 9/27 allie   every dog (independent) 9/27 ben böhmer   bloom (ninja tune) 9/27 christian lee hutson   paradise pop. 10 (anti records) 9/27 the coronas   thoughts & observations (so far so good records) 9/27 creed bratton   tao pop (independent) 9/27 desperate journalist   no hero (fierce panda records) 9/27 ezra collective   dance, no one’s watching (partisan records) 9/27 gabe goodman   the rock (independent) 9/27 gemma hayes   blind faith (townsend music limited) 9/27 haich ber na   the everyday (independent) 9/27 kill lincoln   no normal (bad time records) 9/27 mediocre   growth eater (dangerbird records) 9/27 kate bollinger   songs from a thousand frames of mind (ghostly) 9/27 leif vollebekk   revelation (secret city records) 9/27 maxïmo park   stream of life (lower third) 9/27 mediocre   growth eater (dangerbird records) 9/27 merce lemon   watch me drive them dogs wild (darling records) 9/27 michelle   songs about you specifically (atlantic records / transgressive) 9/27 naima bock   below a massive dark land (sub pop) 9/27 nina nesbitt   mountain music (apple tree records) 9/27 october drift   blame the young (physical education recordings) 9/27 sophie   sophie (transgressive / future classic) 9/27 suzanna choffel   bird by bird (independent) 9/27 trace mountains   into the burning blue (lame o records) 9/27 tsha   sad girl (ninja tune) 9/27 tuelo   regarding my heart (independent) 9/27 xiu xiu   13″ frank beltrame italian stiletto with bison horn grips (polyvinyl) 10/4 a place to bury strangers   synthesizer (dedstrange) 10/4 balance and composure   with you in spirit (memory music) 10/4 bronze   bronze (independent) 10/4 casual male   casual male (independent) 10/4 the clearwater swimmers   the clearwater swimmers (new martian records) 10/4 coldplay   moon music (parlophone records) 10/4 devarrow   heart shaped rock (paper bag records) 10/4 half waif   see you at the maypole (anti  records) 10/4 james bay   changes all the time (mercury records) 10/4 jonah yano   jonah yano & the heavy loop (innovative leisure) 10/4 joy clark   tell it to the wind (righteous babe records) 10/4 leon bridges   leon (columbia records) 10/4 molly trueman   angels & aliens (independent) 10/4 nick ward   house with the blue door (republic records) 10/4 orla gartland   everybody needs a hero (new friends) 10/4 palomino blond   you feel it too (kanine records) 10/4 public service broadcasting   the last flight (so recordings) 10/4 telescreens   7 (virgin music group) 10/4 tony vaz   pretty side of the ugly life (jubilee gang) 10/4 wild feathers   sirens (new west records) 10/4 wild pink   dulling the horns (fire talk) 10/4 yasmin williams   acadia (nonesuch records) 10/11 beau   girl cried wolf (immortal records) 10/11 caroline says   the lucky one (western vinyl) 10/11 the chesterfield kings   we’re still all the same (wicked cool records) 10/11 current joys   east my love (secretly canadian) 10/11 dawes   oh brother (dead ringers via secretly distribution) 10/11 dua saleh   i should call them (ghostly international) 10/11 faux real   faux ever (city slang records) 10/11 field music   limits of language (memphis industries) 10/11 goat   goat (rocket recordings) 10/11 great gable   small fry (warner music australia) 10/11 hamish anderson   electric (independent) 10/11 harmony   gossip (harmony’s fantasy corp.) 10/11 kim churchill   it’s lovely to have you here (independent) 10/11 letting up despite great faults   reveries (independent) 10/11 the linda lindas   no obligation (epitaph records) 10/11 lucy isabel   all the light (independent) 10/11 the magic lantern   to everything a season (hectic eclectic / la buissonne) 10/11 nate mercereau   excellent traveler (third man records) 10/11 okean elzy   lighthouse (elektra) 10/11 stratejacket   bad start (edgeout) 10/11 tucker zimmerman   dance of love (4ad) 10/18 bear hands   the key to what (rostrum records / cantora records) 10/18 berries   berries (xtra mile recordings) 10/18 bishop briggs   tell my therapist i’m fine (virgin records) 10/18 dean lewis   the epilogue (island records australia) 10/18 high vis   guided tour (dais records) 10/18 janette king   incantation (birthday cake records) 10/18 japandroids   fate and alcohol (anti  records) 10/18 kelly lee owens   dreamstate (dh2) 10/18 office culture   enough (ruination record co.) 10/18 porridge radio   clouds in the sky they will always be there for me (secretly canadian) 10/18 rubblebucket   year of the banana (egghunt records) 10/18 scott orr   miracle body (other songs) 10/18 shawn mendes   shawn (island records) 10/18 shower curtain   words from a wishing well (imprint angel tapes) 10/21 cephas azariah   joy paradox (reflections) 10/25 amythyst kiah   still + bright (rounder records) 10/25 anya marina   asteroid (good rope records) 10/25 better lovers   highly irresponsible (sharptone records) 10/25 buffchick   showtime (independent) 10/25 curses   another heaven (italians do it better) 10/25 ece era   bedside tunes (2mr / remote control records) 10/25 emmeline   shapes, shadows, dvds (lewis recordings) 10/25 fievel is glauque   rong weicknes (fat possum) 10/25 jake isaac   benjamin (nettwerk music group) 10/25 kelsea ballerini   patterns (black river entertainment) 10/25 laura marling   patterns in repeat (partisan records) 10/25 little moon   dear divine (joyful noise) 10/25 miranda and the beat   can’t take it (ernest jenning record co./khannibalism) 10/25 north arm   stay young (broken stone records) 10/25 one true pairing   endless rain (domino records) 10/25 pixies   the night the zombies came (bmg) 10/25 pom pom squad   mirror starts moving without me (city slang records) 10/25 shigeto   cherry blossom baby (ghostly international) 10/31 sister ghost   beyond the water (third bar records) 10/25 soccer mommy   evergreen (loma vista recordings) 10/25 the strike   ` (nettwerk music group) 10/25 tangerine   you’re still the only one (independent) 10/25 trauma ray   chameleon (dais) 11/1 garrett owen   memoriam (independent) 11/1 haley heynderickx   seed of a seed (mama bird recording co.) 11/1 mount eerie   night palace (p.w. elverum & sun) 11/1 olivia o   no bones, sickly sweet (independent) 11/1 parvyn   maniuda (gaga digi) 11/1 red ribbon   red ribbon (danger collective records) 11/1 school of x   seventh heaven (tambourhinoceros) 11/8 boywithuke   burnout (awal) 11/8 emily burns   die happy (so recordings) 11/8 hiatus   is (lucky thunder) 11/8 lazy day   open the door (brace yourself records) 11/8 our girl   the good kind (bella union) 11/8 soft as snow   metal.wet (beacon sound) 11/15 becky and the birds   only music makes me cry now (4ad) 11/15 carlita   sentimental (ninja tune) 11/15 ciaran lavery   light entertainment (nettwerk music group) 11/15 homer   ensatina (big crown records) 11/22 warhaus   karaoke moon (play it again sam) 11/29 total tommy   bruises ([pias]) 11/29 yacht rock revue   escape artist (pleaserock) 12/6 white denim   12 (bella union) tbd 2024 lawrence matthews   between mortal reach & posthumous grip (golden boi) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

show submenu for "read" sectionread articles browse short form content that's perfect for a quick read issuu store purchase your next favourite publication categories arts and entertainment religion and spirituality business science education society family and parenting sports food and drink style and fashion health and fitness technology hobbies travel home and garden vehicles pets all categories show submenu for "features" sectionfeatures flipbooks transform any piece of content into a page turning experience. fullscreen sharing deliver a distraction free reading experience with a simple link. embed host your publication on your website or blog with just a few clicks. articles get discovered by sharing your best content as bite sized articles. statistics make data driven decisions to drive reader engagement, subscriptions, and campaigns. teams enable groups of users to work together to streamline your digital publishing. social posts create on brand social posts and articles in minutes. gifs highlight your latest work via email or social media with custom gifs. add links send readers directly to specific items or pages with shopping and web links. video say more by seamlessly including video within your publication. digital sales sell your publications commission free as single issues or ongoing subscriptions. qr codes generate qr codes for your digital content. more features integrations canva create professional content with canva, including presentations, catalogs, and more. hubspot embed, gate, and track issuu content in hubspot marketing campaigns. adobe express go from adobe express creation to issuu publication. adobe indesign design pixel perfect content like flyers, magazines and more with adobe indesign. show submenu for "use cases" sectionuse cases industry art, architecture, and design education internal communications marketing and pr nonprofits publishing real estate retail and wholesale travel and tourism more industries role content marketers designers publishers salespeople social media managers teams content type flipbook portfolio digital magazine digital flipbook pdf to flipbook newspaper digital book digital lookbook more content types show submenu for "learn" sectionlearn blog welcome to issuu’s blog: home to product news, tips, resources, interviews (and more) related to content marketing and publishing. help center here you'll find an answer to your question. webinars free live webinars and workshops. resources dive into our extensive resources on the topic that interests you. it's like a masterclass to be explored at your own pace. turn static files into dynamic content formats. create once,share everywhere. issuu turns pdfs and other files into interactive flipbooks and engaging content for every channel.

show submenu for "read" sectionread articles browse short form content that's perfect for a quick read issuu store purchase your next favourite publication categories arts and entertainment religion and spirituality business science education society family and parenting sports food and drink style and fashion health and fitness technology hobbies travel home and garden vehicles pets all categories show submenu for "features" sectionfeatures flipbooks transform any piece of content into a page turning experience. fullscreen sharing deliver a distraction free reading experience with a simple link. embed host your publication on your website or blog with just a few clicks. articles get discovered by sharing your best content as bite sized articles. statistics make data driven decisions to drive reader engagement, subscriptions, and campaigns. teams enable groups of users to work together to streamline your digital publishing. social posts create on brand social posts and articles in minutes. gifs highlight your latest work via email or social media with custom gifs. add links send readers directly to specific items or pages with shopping and web links. video say more by seamlessly including video within your publication. digital sales sell your publications commission free as single issues or ongoing subscriptions. qr codes generate qr codes for your digital content. more features integrations canva create professional content with canva, including presentations, catalogs, and more. hubspot embed, gate, and track issuu content in hubspot marketing campaigns. adobe express go from adobe express creation to issuu publication. adobe indesign design pixel perfect content like flyers, magazines and more with adobe indesign. show submenu for "use cases" sectionuse cases industry art, architecture, and design education internal communications marketing and pr nonprofits publishing real estate retail and wholesale travel and tourism more industries role content marketers designers publishers salespeople social media managers teams content type flipbook portfolio digital magazine digital flipbook pdf to flipbook newspaper digital book digital lookbook more content types show submenu for "learn" sectionlearn blog welcome to issuu’s blog: home to product news, tips, resources, interviews (and more) related to content marketing and publishing. help center here you'll find an answer to your question. webinars free live webinars and workshops. resources dive into our extensive resources on the topic that interests you. it's like a masterclass to be explored at your own pace. turn static files into dynamic content formats. the june issue of narc. magazine, the home of alternative music and culture in the north east. create once,share everywhere. issuu turns pdfs and other files into interactive flipbooks and engaging content for every channel.
supported by the singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant garde. her new lp, “sentir que no sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress. by carolina abbott galvão ten years ago, the cellist and experimental composer mabe fratti came across a strange painting by paul klee. “angelus novus” depicts an angel, wings splayed, eyes wide open, who looks as though he is about to flutter away from whatever he is looking at. “it’s a metaphor for history,” she said, video calling from her friend’s living room couch in berlin. “the philosopher walter benjamin wrote about it: this idea that we’re looking forwards, but also always looking back.” the concept would go on to form the basis for “angel nuevo,” the first song fratti wrote on her new album, “sentir que no sabes,” out friday. “i wanted to talk about what it feels like to know you want to progress, but not know where you want to go,” she said of the track, which starts out quietly and builds in an anxious crescendo. moving forward hasn’t exactly been a problem for fratti, 32, who was born in guatemala and is based in mexico city. since releasing her debut album, “pies sobre la tierra,” in 2019, she has put out two more solo records, in addition to collaborations with her partner and producer, the venezuelan musician hector tosta (known as i la católica); the german electronic artist gudrun gut; and her improvisational quartet amor muere. in just five years, she has built a reputation as the most prominent member of mexico city’s dynamic and rapidly evolving experimental music scene. driven by an influx of musicians to the metropolis and the establishment there of new institutions   sound galleries like 316 centro in the city’s la merced neighborhood, and labels such as umor rex   the mexican capital’s avant garde music community has flourished in recent years. older musicians have been sowing these seeds since at least the 1970s, fratti said, citing ana ruiz, a pianist who helped create atrás del cosmos, a “community of improvisers don cherry participated in,” and the saxophone player germán bringas, who founded the venue jazzorca in the 1990s.

 recent and archived work by carolina abbott galvão for the new york times the singer, cellist and composer has found inspiration in the city’s flourishing avant garde. her new lp, “sentir que no sabes,” wrestles with the idea of progress. by carolina abbott galvão for his latest album, “y’y,” the brazilian composer looked to inspirations in nature and experiments with prepared pianos. by carolina abbott galvão this spanish singer’s debut, “ultrabelleza,” experiments with a signature genre of her andalusian homeland, creating an unexpected homage. by carolina abbott galvão a writer struggled with being present. this brazilian drum helped her pay attention. by carolina abbott galvão in the past decade, the singer has earned fame and the respect of some of brazil’s most lauded musical elders.