The Welcome Party are a 4-piece band from Wrexham. Formed through a mutual love of The Beatles, Wilco and Teenage Fanclub, the band have grown from an acoustic duo to a full band over the last 3 years.

The first three singles saw airplay across BBC Radio Wales by Bethan Elfyn, Huw Stephens and Adam Walton as well as exposure on various online platforms, blogs and radio stations. Their debut EP is to be released summer 2023 with a number of live dates to announced soon.

This Canadian project is formed around the nucleus of twins Mark and J. Scott Grundy (Quaker Parents).

H4R’s sound, evoked through the frenetic energy of their 2022 LP, Energy Bar (Mint Records)—is most simply described as art rock, but more accurately as post-punk unravelled with one tug of a thread to reveal an internal pool of psych, jazz, ambient, electronica and Britpop.

“Heaven For Real’s bustling rhythms and scuttling guitar pull-offs seemingly absorb all of life’s urgency and magic.” Bandcamp Daily

Members of JUNO nominated, Canadian Folk Music Award winning neo-folk quintet Aerialists, Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray explore fiddle music in fluid, easy lockstep. Fiddler and Hardanger fiddle player Elise Boeur draws from the wells of Norwegian and Swedish fiddle music, melds in fistfuls of arcane influences, and emerges with a multi-faceted sound grounded in Nordic traditions. A founding member of indie-folk band Fish & Bird, Adam Iredale-Gray is a versatile guitarist and fiddler with deep roots in Irish traditional music and a commitment to innovation. They each spent years touring as collaborators with diverse projects, and all along they were playing fiddle tunes at sessions, folk dances, and afterparties. With this duo project, you’re invited into these social music afterhours, as they dig into their favourite tunes on hardingfele, guitar, and raging twin fiddles.

Their show is a masterful exploration of traditional music collected from years of travel and immersion in aural traditions. A Norwegian gangar learned in the mountains of Telemark, Irish jigs picked up from countless sessions, a modern Icelandic jazz tune from a favourite record, a Swedish polska lifted from a community dance – the thread that connects these pieces is Boeur and Iredale-Gray’s open-hearted, contagious love of the melodies. Their new album Fiddle Tunes is exactly what the title promises; a celebration of the experience of sharing fiddle traditions the way they’ve been shared for centuries, the tune recreating itself anew with each repetition as folks sit knee to knee and play.

THE 10 BEST NEW ALBUMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Songlines (March 2023 issue)

“There is an almost telepathic level of communication between the players” Fatea

“Gripping and visceral” Folkworld

Art Ross (they/them) and Aaron Green (he/him) come from disparate backgrounds and musical forms, meeting in the middle to comprise a band that’s tender and fierce, exuberant and gentle.

Green—a veteran of the Halifax rock scene, the guitar anchor of Floodland and Hello Delaware—and Ross—a trans songwriter with an acoustic guitar—started writing songs together over text, by accident. Pillow Fite emerged publicly at the start of 2021 with its non-binary gender-subverting aesthetics already in place and a languid lead single in “Playing the Fool.” Halifax, a town built on and stuck in rock music made by men, responded with supportive fervour, selling out back-to-back shows that saw the duo expand its sound with help from the scene’s most in-demand players.

Fans of the intimate and observational lyrics of Kathleen Edwards and the intensity and moodiness of Radiohead will find similar amenities in Pillow Fite. Between Ross’ boldly queer, bravely intimate lyrics and Green’s tasteful and inventive guitar lines—he’s also cut his production teeth on this project—they evoke weeping and singalongs in equal measure.

Drawing on the influence and emotional heft of songwriters such as Sharon Van Etten, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Tegan and Sara, Pillow Fite’s debut record solidifies a fusion of a diverse array of experiences, genres, and ideas. Flutter is a an album that is as deeply heartfelt as it is catchy against all odds. The the Halifax duo collaborated with John Mullane (In-Flight Safety, Loviet, POSTFUN) to create a project that is bold yet quiet, intimate, and full of tender moments. Pillow Fite is music for your break-up and your rebound, the future and the now, a cut and a kiss.

Jack in Water (William Clapson) is a British artist living in Mallorca known for his melancholic and alternative music where he explores various themes such as masculinity and mental health.

Last year he released his debut album ‘You Don’t Feel Like Home’ following a series of EP’s . Trauma, repression, difficult family relationships or alcohol abuse are some of the complex aspects that this body of work addresses in contrast with the freshness provided by the tender ballad dedicated to his best friend and previous collaborator Oliver Chapman in ‘Unconditional Love’.

In 2022 he released an EP of songs he wrote during 2020 called ‘The Year We Lost’. It is a set of songs written as gifts requested by fans and friends when COVID hit and the world started to lock down. There are songs from friends to friends, Mothers to sons and partner to partner. All were forced apart so wanted to send a message of hope or love to each other via the medium of music. What does 2023 have in store? A new album and a few more surprises.

‘A songwriter with real depth.’ Clash

‘Out of his comfort zone and into the intimidating space of emotional vulnerability.’ Atwood