Listening to Nom De Plume’s new album, Circle the Dream, is like finding an old, intricate map for a place that doesn't exist on any globe. This is a record for the motionless traveler, the soul pacing the perimeter of its own skull. Aris Karabelas and Michael Magee have crafted a landscape not of highways and canyons, but of the vast, contradictory terrain behind...

Because of the deft manner in which she combines the styles of country music, pop music, folk music, and the music of her Brazilian ancestors, Anna Lopes stands out as a bright light in the huge musical tapestry of linked genres and worldwide influences that characterises the music business. At the age of 19, she uprooted her life and travelled to the United States to...