Following their double-bill appearance at Celtic Connections 2014, former Arab Strap vocalist Aidan Moffatt and ex- El Hombre Trajeado guitarist RM Hubbert – successive winners of the Scottish Album of the Year Award – return as a duo with their rave-reviewed 2018 release Here Lies the Body. Centred on the narrative of ex-lovers reunited by chance on their stag and hen weekends in Blackpool, the album – also featuring singer and cellist Siobhan Wilson – steers superbly between bleakness and humour, merciless candour and drunken dreaminess, as Hubbert frames Moffatt’s gruff, half-spoken vocals with intricate, flamenco-tinged picking and punchy math-rock riffs.

English folk royalty meets Antipodean country-soul in the new duo partnership of Marry Waterson and Emily Barker, previewing their debut joint recording A Window to Other Ways, produced by renowned musical polymath Adem and due out in spring 2019. Waterson’s abstract poetic lyrics and wistful vocals, aligned with Barker’s sultry, funky Americana, promise a richly intriguing match.