Brian Bilston is one of the UK’s most popular poets. He has teamed up with Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey and Ian Button of The Catenary Wires to release an album Sounds Made by Humans on Skep Wax Records. A couple of years ago, word reached Rob and Amelia that Brian had been spotted wearing a t-shirt of their other bands (Heavenly) at one of his shows, and was a big fan of their music. Given that they, in turn, were fans of Brian’s poetry, introductions were made, friendships were formed, and Sounds Made By Humans took shape. The album isn’t a set of readings with musical backdrops: it’s a collection of songs, where words and music have become completely intertwined. There are verses, and there are choruses.  There is no ‘riffing’, no improvisation. In many ways, Brian’s poems are already like pop songs: brief, direct, and witty; sometimes poignant, sometimes biting and political; but always economical, and always accessible. Rob took thirteen of Brian’s poems and created melodies and arrangements, which are then played by a full band, with Ian Button on drums and Fay Hallam on keyboard. Sometimes the words of the poems are sung by Amelia or Rob. Sometimes they are spoken by Brian. Sometimes both these things happen at once. This is a pop record where the poetry and the music are equal partners: sounds made by humans in perfect artistic alignment. Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires will be performing song-poems at selected UK venues in November 2025.

Adult Matters is the solo project of Luigi Bussotti. 90’s guitars, honest and brutal lyrics. Their music is the secret diary of a queer non-binary person. Luigi grew up with 90’s indie rock, Elliott Smith, and American singer-songwriters, influences that deeply shaped their artistic journey and gave them the opportunity to express their emotions without filters. They started writing from a very young age to escape from small-town reality and later taught themself how to play guitar: “I learned to play guitar by watching live shows of my favorite bands on KEXP.” In 2016, they recorded their first album, Endings, in a home studio. This album, which they toured across Italy with a power trio, allowed them to carve out a small space for themself in the Italian bedroom-pop scene. In 2021, they released Flare Up, their second album, a lofi work that they performed non-stop on tour for two years, with over 50 shows across Italy. Their third album, A Modern Witch was released on February 21, 2025, via Costello’s Records and Wires Records.

Hailing from Dundalk, Ireland, Norabelle consists of Ken Clarke (Guitar & Vocals), Shane O’Hanrahan (Guitar, Vocals, and Piano), Stefano Rossi (Bass), and Stephen Ludlow (Drums). The band draws influence from artists such as Sun Kil Moon, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Sufjan Stevens. Norabelle’s debut album, Wren, was out in 2011 and earned widespread acclaim for its poetic storytelling and elegant arrangements. The Sunday Business Post described it as featuring “achingly sweet harmonies, overlaying acoustic guitars, cello and the lightest percussion, but it’s their poetic storytelling that sets their songs apart from the throng.” On the 11th April 2025, after a fourteen years hiatus, the band released their second album entitled The Mountain Blinks. Each track on The Mountain Blinks invites listeners into deeply personal narratives. From the poignant reflection on memory and mourning in She’s Not Here to the tender love song Warm Blood, the album carries a raw emotional weight.

Faith Eliott is a songwriter and visual artist. Born in Minneapolis, they moved to Scotland nearly two decades ago. Through storytelling and world-building, they illustrate intuitive landscapes populated by hagfish, Pleistocene volcanoes, cursed memes, and late-Renaissance apocryphal monsters lurking in the aisles of Asda. Sonically, Eliott grounds themself in a stripped-back, lyric-driven songwriting approach that evolves through the recording process to incorporate orchestral elements—often contributed by frequent collaborator Robyn Dawson—along with electronic textures and found sounds.Their forthcoming album Dryas will be release on Lost Map Records tomorrow, May 30th. This record follows two previous releases, Impossible Bodies (2019, OK Pal Records) and Insects (2016, Song, by Toad Records), both of which received critical acclaim, including coverage from The List and The Scotsman, as well as national radio play on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, and 6Music.