Folk artists this year drew inspiration from China, south Asia and the wildness of the sea on the way to making stirring and vital music
Behold the Banjo Guzheng Pickin’ Girls, as goes the title of one the many joyous collaborations here, bringing together diverse traditional music from China’s marginalised communities and the clawhammer banjo style that began in west Africa before being claimed by the American south. In many tracks – such as the gorgeous Water Is Wide/Wusuli Boat Song, a weaving-together of a Scottish ballad with a Hezhe traditional – this record is a constant celebration of how music can help us explore common ground, and freshly discover it together.