The mighty sampson

Music is in Cat Bateman’s DNA. With a dad who was a guitarist and singer, and a childhood that’s reminiscent of The Partridge Family, she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t belting out a tune. “On

Lea Kampmann, Teitur Lassen et al Stunt Records STUCD24092 It seems fitting that the small archipelago of the Faroe Islands, set in the chilly North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland and now notor

From the noisy streets, community cafés and surprisingly verdant cemeteries of Southeast London have risen CAROLINE : a confoundingly brilliant eight-piece band with no obvious frontperson, fusing choral folk with fractured post-rock and experimental pop. As Sam Richards discovers, they haven’t made life easy for themselves. “But there has to be a vulnerability of some sort. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

From pop star to Kitchen Disco icon, Sophie Ellis-Bextor has brought joy to lives and homes across the globe. She talks to Rosamund Dean about marriage, menopause and why the music must go on

These inspiring women are certainly marching to the beat of their own drum

shouting forever into the receiver Anne Denholm (harp), Louise McMonagle (cello), Jonathan Morton (violin) et al NMC NMC D285 61:56 mins Tackling social themes and reckoning with history is part of wh