I still need to buy the Mantra Vega one. I like the I Am Snow album, and I still have to pre-order the Mostly Autumn one. There has been a bit of a barrage of pre-orders in the second half of this year. Not easy to keep up with it all. But I do think its important to support independent musicians with their pre-orders.

The best 2016 album I have heard is Monica Heldal’s “The One In The Sun”, the so-called difficult second album. Monica’s prog influences coming to the fore on this one and one of the best albums I’ve heard in years. Secrets For September made an excellent debut album, Erja Lyytinen and Heikki Silvennoinen made a very good CD/DVD live album of new/old/covers. And canadian harp guitar player, Jamie Dupuis, has just released a new album of originals. He’s an awesome player. And scottish guitarist, Chris Adams, is an exciting find with his new album, “Otherside Of The Sky”

But the most interesting, and totally unexpected, release of the year was the debut album by the elusive and mysterious parisienne guitarist, Juliette Valduriez. She now uses the name Juliette Jade (her middle name). After seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth (causing all sorts of rumours) since the early summer of 2013, Juliette suddenly announced the release of her album a couple of days before christmas. All originals, she plays all the instruments, and does all the vocals.

I’d take that any day of the week