Robin James Hurt’s “A Song, A Story Told” arrives with a sound you can almost run a thumb over, like worn corduroy. In an age of sterile, diamond-polished productions, this album is a defiantly handmade thing, tracked onto vintage cassette machines. The result is not a flaw, but an ingredient. A faint, persistent hiss breathes alongside the instruments, a ghost in the machine who...

Kelsie Kimberlin, a multi-talented musician and singer who was born in the United States but has strong ties to Ukraine, deviates significantly from the mould of the normal artist. Her work, despite the fact that it is clearly amusing, delves deeper than the surface, exploring serious social themes with multiple meanings that demonstrate her great awareness of the transforming power of music. Kelsie went on an...