Clara Mann makes soft “almost folk music” to make herself feel calm in a busy world. Now based in Bristol, Clara grew up in a small village in the South of France, and grew up with classical music always around her, from choral pieces to chamber music. She is a classically trained musician, playing piano and voice, with classical music playing a great part of her identity as a folk musician. She writes lo-fi songs to be played in the evening. She is one of the most exciting, original and engaging artists producing music right now. Her debut EP, Consolations, will be out soon on the wonderful english label Sad Club Records.

Liverpool band The Fernweh combine the baroque psychedelic sounds of ’60s bands like the Moody Blues and the Left Banke with British folk and a modern sonic punch. Their sound is made by three musicians who paid their dues as sidemen for years and used every sonic and melodic trick they learned along the way on their impressive self-titled first album, released in 2018.
The project started as an idea years before it became a reality. Guitarist Jamie Backhouse and keyboardist Austin Murphy, where at Glastonbury in 2007 with their band, where they were joined by bassist Ned Crowther, who was playing with its own band. The trio ended up sitting atop a hill discussing their shared love of classic American bands of the ’60s, psychedelia and British folk like Fairport Convention (whose album Liege and Lief became something of a guiding light for the trio.) Somewhere along the way, one of them suggested they should start a band. The sound they came up with was classic psychedelic pop with a huge swath of folky weirdness mixed in. The Fernweh’s debut self-titled album was released by Skeleton Key in late 2018. Their new single “The Wounds Of Love” is out now via bandcamp.