New Year Cards 2014 #6

Nine years on from the widely-acclaimed Iron Stone recording, Scottish singer-songwriter, harpist and guitarist Robin Williamson returns with a new album of self-penned pieces – thoughtful and touching meditations on love, destiny, the natural world, roads travelled, and the daily pleasures of being alive today. The album finds Williamson in fine voice and in best creative form on his diverse instruments, drawing inspiration also from the ingenious improvisational input of violist Mat Maneri (further developing the association initiated on Skirting The River Road ) and percussionist Ches Smith (last heard on ECM with Tim Berne’s Snakeoil band). Trusting In The Rising Light was recorded in Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, in January 2014.

English singer-songwriter Jon Allen follows up Dead Man’s Suit and Sweet Defeat with his third album, Deep River. The most immediately arresting thing about Jon Allen is his voice, which we can only imagine he has acquired from a Bluesman after beating him in a game of cards in a bar somewhere in New Orleans. Allen’s haunting voice, which sends shivers down the spine, conveys pathos, pain and wisdom in equal measure. If he sang the phone book it would sound profound. Thankfully, Allen has no recourse to such banality, and he has once again assembled a strong collection of thoughtful and striking songs. Deep River, as even the name suggests, has strong blues roots, and the occasional strains of the harmonica shores up the conjured illusion of a wander across the American south.

This collection of 200 of the most influential music videos in Britain 1966 to 2016 is the result of a three-year University research project run in partnership with the British Film Institute and the British Library. The collection has been put together by a team of researchers in collaboration with a panel of over one hundred directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, choreographers, colourists and video commissioners from the business. Each video has been selected because it represents a landmark in music video history - a new genre, film technique, post-production method, distribution channel, or other landmark…