Time again for my annual labour of love, rounding up my favourite releases of the past year. As usual, I’ve ranged across genres as freely as I can in the time and space available – so I sincerely hope you will browse through the selections and find something intriguing.

A bit of housekeeping.

Where possible, I’ve chosen a YouTube video for sample tracks, but where this has proved tricky I’ve resorted to Spotify (including the continuous playlist at the end). However, beyond the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’, we all know that to truly support musicians, you need to purchase a disc or download. I cannot encourage this enough. If you must use Spotify as your main vehicle for consuming music, please commit to listening to each record 846,782 times.

For classical releases, we recommend using Presto Music for CDs and high-quality downloads. For other genres, I’ve suggested a link for buying the music in the way I think most benefits the artist.

My album of the year provides the main image for this article.

Onwards!

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Omo Bello & Rebeca Omordia: ‘African Art Song’

As the African Concert Series she founded goes from strength to strength with a regular residency at London’s Wigmore Hall – so Rebeca Omordia continues to release enlightening, ear-opening recordings of African classical repertoire on SOMM. Following her sublime solo piano disc ‘African Pianism vol.2’ earlier in the year, October brought this swift follow-up with soprano Bello (with key contributions from percussionist Richard Olatunde Baker). It’s a joy to hear vocal works from the great composers Omordia has already highlighted – including Ayo Bankole, Fred Onovwerosuoke and Akin Euba – programmed with work from important composers of African heritage: Joseph Bologne from the 19th century, alongside Shirley J Thompson and Errolyn Wallen from the present day.

Claire Booth & Christopher Glynn: ‘Expressionist Music’

Hard to choose between this and another superb disc featuring Booth (and Schoenberg) – the magical ‘Pierrot Portraits’ with Ensemble 360. This just edges it for me because of the usual relaxed and intimate vibe of the duo (their other ‘composer’ discs on Grainger, Grieg and Mussorgsky are equally appealing and enlightening) and their fascinating concept of linking the songs’ themes to the composer’s paintings. In an instant, what could have been a sprawling survey becomes a focused, off-beat character study.

Martin Bussey: ‘A Brother Abroad’

I was excited to hear this album, having loved Bussey’s one-woman opera ‘Mary’s Hand’ (a tour-de-force from mezzo Clare McCaldin). This disc features première recordings of smaller-scale works: soloists Marcus Farnsworth (particularly in the sequence that gives the disc its title) and Alison Rose are utterly compelling, underlining the distinctive way Bussey writes for the voice.

Cahill Costello: ‘Cahill Costello II’

The second release from writing/performing duo Kevin Cahill (guitar) and Graham Costello (drums) is a heroically expansive thing. The colleagues improvise and write together, resulting in music that sounds both spontaneous and supportive. In places, Cahill’s immersive waves of sound create a steady state where the drums soar, explode almost, playing with traditional ideas of who might be taking the lead at any one time. Spectacular.

Buy from Bandcamp.

Olivia Chaney: ‘Circus of Desire

One of our finest folk voices and incisive, self-searching songwriters. I wrote: “Chaney’s third full-length album…focuses almost exclusively on her own compositions. Great news for us, as this set of lyrics is open, wise and forensic…the harder she is on herself, the gentler she is with us. [Her] beautifully expressive voice channels joy and pain in equal measure, a kind of confident grace.”

Buy from Bandcamp.

ChromaDuo: ‘What I Saw in the Water’

A stunning selection of contemporary pieces for guitar duo, with the connecting thread that the composers are themselves guitarists. The immaculate production rewards close attention, as keen listeners will enjoy hearing how the two players, Tracey Anne Smith and Rob MacDonald, dovetail around each other.

Josienne Clarke: ‘Parenthesis, I’

Clarke is quick to announce on-stage that she specialises in sad songs – but her melancholy contains multitudes. She can take any of her carefully-wrought, painstakingly-arranged songs and invest them with such open, genuine feeling that it’s like she’s trying to convey their emotion and meaning to you for the first time. She has a genius for achingly catchy melodies, and an arresting turn of phrase: as in the gorgeous ‘Friendly Teeth’ with its depiction of coping with determination and hesitancy at once: ‘With a slight discomfort in my zone; to leap, carefully, into the unknown.’ Take that leap into this record.

Buy from Bandcamp.

Danish String Quartet: ‘Keel Road’

This is the latest in a series of occasional releases where the group – bolstered by some like-minded colleagues – takes a detour from classical music into the folk tradition and, excitingly, add some of their own tunes into the mix. Audibly a labour of love.

Brett Dean: ‘Rooms of Elsinore’

This album brings together satellite compositions that Dean wrote broadly through the period he was preparing and creating his opera ‘Hamlet’. Given the play’s themes, it’s interesting to imagine Dean himself worrying away, chipping at a preoccupation that won’t let go. We hear Jennifer France and Lotte Betts-Dean bringing to life the play’s women in startling art song sequences, and extended feature spots for James Crabb’s accordion, Volker Hemken’s bass clarinet and the composer himself on viola. But for all the variety on offer, each piece captures the nervous psychological tension that ‘Hamlet’ (play and opera) subjects us to: looking through different windows, for sure, but onto the same scene.

Stephen Goss: ‘Landscape and Memory’

Another composer portrait, this is a treasure trove on a huge scale: three discs, packed with works for orchestra, chamber ensembles and soloists. For fans of Goss’s music, like myself, this is obviously a cup-runneth-over scenario – but it’s also an exemplary release: treating the album as a single project, the excellent booklet notes give a fascinating insight into the composer’s approach and wide range of influences, to help tie the whole together. Bravo to Deux-Elles for going large.

Jack Hancher: ‘The Memory Garden’

Focusing on English guitar music for his debut album, Hancher offers handsome renditions of Arnold’s ‘Fantasy for Guitar’ and Britten’s ‘Nocturnal after John Dowland’ – along with three of Dowland’s own tunes. However, he also takes the opportunity to programme specially commissioned pieces from Laura Snowden and Dani Howard. The overall recital has a spacious, spellbinding acoustic that captures something more than the notes – there is the ‘sound’ of the strings being played, you can hear the effort you would see in the room. No wonder, perhaps, as the fine production is courtesy of Matthew Wadsworth (if you have Wadsworth’s latest album with Carolyn Sampson, ‘You Did Not Want For Joy’, you will know and welcome this atmosphere – check this record out straightaway).

Viviane Hasler & Maren Gamper: ‘Mélodies d’Ailleurs’

Hasler and Gamper wanted to document some favourite mélodies from their time performing together in such a way that they would sound fresh and contemporary. Accordingly, they give restrained, sensitive and at times spectral performances of French art songs by Chausson, Debussy, Hahn and, importantly, Chaminade – then destabilise them with ‘interruptions’ of three lieder by Rihm on Ophelia (more ‘Hamlet’!). The approach really works, balancing the sensual with something a little more high-octane.

Ruby Hughes & Manchester Collective: ‘End of my Days’

Emerging mere days into 2024, this started the year on a high for me, with a collaboration between two favourites. They create a consistent, constantly affecting soundworld, scaling down (Mahler) or up (Dowland, Debussy) as needed – while foregrounding contemporary works from Deborah Pritchard, Caroline Shaw and Errollyn Wallen.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: ‘Chain of Light’

How amazing that we can have a new, full-length album from NFAK in 2024 – thanks to Real World’s discovery of these ‘lost sessions’, recorded around the same time as his series of revered masterpieces for the label. Essential.

Buy from Real World Records.

Katharina Konradi, Catriona Morison & Ammiel Bushakevitz: ‘Echoes’

Thanks to these two singers reconnecting and sharing a love of duets, we have a chance to hear some relatively scarce material, including important contributions from women composers Mel Bonis, Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot.

Florent Marie: ‘Dowland: Sweet Melancholy’

Marie performs this Dowland selection with a tough tenderness, perfect for the composer’s mystifying way of uplifting and soothing us even in his most downbeat modes. The glorious church acoustic means that, like Jack Hancher’s disc, you can hear the performance, as well as the music.

Lisette Oropesa: ‘Mis Amores son les Flores’

Oropesa thrills the listener with a selection of ‘zarzuela’ – popular Euro-Hispanic song at its zenith in the 19th century. Normally, I like nothing more than to stretch out into a generous, wide-ranging recital, but here, the crisp running time – not to mention the flamboyant sleeve – make this disc feel like an old-school ‘showcase’ LP, spiritually two sides of vinyl. Banger after banger! All killer no filler! And so on!

Pye Corner Audio: ‘The Endless Echo’

Tapping into folk horror and hauntology themes, the Ghost Box record label has built up a brilliant myth around its key acts (including Belbury Poly, The Advisory Circle, The Focus Group). They all represent an aspect of the Belbury suburb, frozen in a time of sinister Penguin paperback covers, doom-laden public information films and posters, all lovingly homaged in the house-style cover art. Perhaps Pye Corner Audio (or, more prosaically, a chap called Martin Jenkins) is the most mysterious conceit of all: his music was originally conceived as a catalogue of ‘found’ tapes stored in the eponymous electrical shop. This latest is a brilliantly eerie collection of tunes that could easily have fallen off the back of a vintage SF or horror soundtrack. Addictive.

Buy from Ghost Box.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: ‘Opus’

‘Opus’ documents Sakamoto giving what he knew would be a final solo performance at the piano, of his own compositions, in his chosen sequence. Chiefly marketed in its austere, yet beautiful film version, there is an audio release as download or on import CD. Poignant, inevitably, but still a life-affirming, intimate celebration of Sakamoto’s music.

Brindley Sherratt & Julius Drake: ‘Fear No More’

As the liner notes attest, this disc highlights how (comparatively) rare it is, first, for a singer with Sherratt’s storied career to be releasing a debut and second, to hear a recital from a bass. Refreshing though these novel elements might be, anyone who has heard this magnificent voice onstage will want this; the selections are so perfectly attuned to Sherratt’s rich timbre, with Drake a perfectly robust, responsive foil.

Sieben: ‘Brand New Dark Age’

When Matt Howden released his latest record, I wrote: “This time round, the Sieben sound has ‘fused’ more tightly than ever, with the lines between virtuosic violin parts and the surrounding loops and layers now blurred into irrelevance … swirling patterns and solos are treated and processed into riffs that take on a near-metallic heft….The resulting, brilliant effect is like listening to a nuclear-powered shaman, half Camden Underworld, half Speakers’ Corner. Strange and savage.”

Buy from Bandcamp.

Trio Mediæval: ‘Yule’

I think this might be the first Christmas release I’ve included on an annual round-up – after all, one hasn’t had the chance to spend very long with any of them. But Trio Mediæval’s take on the genre was always going to be special, bringing their inimitable voices together with a group of musicians improvising on kantele, harbinger fiddle and organ alongside double bass and drums. While they now record for fellow Norwegian outfit 2L, this is exactly the kind of cross-genre collaboration encouraged by their old label ECM (and fans of, say, the Hilliard Ensemble’s work with Jan Garbarek will love to receive this when Christmas comes back round).

Buy from 2L.

Robin Tritschler: ‘Songs for Peter Pears’

A new album from Tritschler is always an event, and I think this fine disc is a particularly special achievement. In bringing the programme together, the tenor spotlights some composers and repertoire which should be better known, certainly to ‘lay listeners’ like me; and the range of material accommodates a range of accompanists – a luxury line-up of Malcolm Martineau on piano, Philip Higham on cello and Sean Shibe on guitar. Across all that, Tritschler gives the record unity, demonstrating that the pieces were, after all, written for the same person – yet never ‘follows’ Pears, remaining his own man throughout.

Xuefei Yang & Johannes Moser: ‘Songs of Joy and Sorrow’

I had the good fortune to hear Yang and Moser play Kings Place in March 2024, performing the repertoire that would make up the contents of this digital release. Their rapport translates into the studio intact.

Zombi: ‘Direct Inject’

Zombi conjure up instrumental atmospheres of sinister soundtracks – but we’re a world (or at least a continent) away from the more reserved, occult-librarian vibes of Ghost Box and Pye Corner Audio. From across the pond, Zombi deliver a heady Grand Guignol mix of synths with live acoustic drums, organic, visceral. So visceral, in fact, that they have recorded for years on Relapse Records, home to some of the US’s scariest extreme metal acts. I imagine them all sharing a ketchup-soaked pizza in front of a horror movie.

Buy from Bandcamp.

Continuous Spotify playlist:

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