Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin (PAN)
Exquisite and distinctive modern chamber works, arranged around Eartheater's soft focus guitar and wide ranging vocals.
Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy And Happiness (Day End)
One of 2020's great surprises, this piece of introspective, artfully warped, sensual contemporary electronic soul comes from one half of pop duo Charles and Eddie, working with producer John Carroll Kirby.
Eiko Ishibashi - Hyakki Yagyo (Black Truffle)
Translating as Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, this set of two long pieces is Eiko Ishibashi's ghost stories project.
Einsturzende Neubauten - Alles In Allem (Potomak)
Mechanistic, industrial clanging, ominous incantations and fragments of melody - also the first studio album in 13 years.
Elena Setien/Grande Days/Xabier Erkizia - Mirande (Forbidden Colours)
Expressive and haunting ballads from the Basque singer-songwriter.
Eli Winter - Unbecoming (American Dreams)
An expanded canvas for the very promising guitarist yields brilliant results.
Elina Duni, Rob Luft, Fred Thomas, Matthieu Michel - Lost Ships (ECM)
Singer Elina Duni's collaboration with the excellent Rob Luft is fully realised here on this beautiful collection of songs combining six originals with six interpretations. Delivered with a delicate touch and depth of feeling.
Elkhorn - The Storm Sessions (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
Maybe setting a precedent for 2020's lockdown experience, this improvised recording came about after Elkhorn were snowed in on a night they should have been playing a gig. The resulting music is glimmering and captivating.
Ellen Allien - Auraa (Bpitch)
With this being her third album in three years, it has been hard to keep up with Berlin's techno pioneer lately. Auraa is vivid and vibrant.
Elliott Galvin - Live In Paris, at Foundation Louis Vuitton (Edition)
This excellent, fluent solo performance from May 2018 captures the core of Elliott Galvin's distinctive and playful approach to piano improvisation.
Elvis Costello - Hey Clockface (Concord)
Even if Elvis Costello now appears to be struggling to draw the theatrical gravitas from his vocal chords that has been the defining feature of his later work, he is still a songwriter of great range and depth. Actually only his third studio album in the past ten years, Hey Clockface finds Costello experimenting with production techniques, arrangement and instrumentation as well as his usual genre flirtations.
Elysia Crampton - Orcorara 2010 (PAN)
Dedicated to Paul Sousa who, while incarcerated, worked as an inmate firefighter tackling wildfires in the Sierra Nevada, Elysia Crampton's bold and powerful latest began life as the soundtrack to an installation. It more than stands alone, however, with the vocal presences of its various guests firmly at the forefront (from the spoken narratives of Jeremy Rojas to the theatrical, near operatic contributions from Shannon Funchess).
Enrique Rodriguez & The Negra Chiway Band - False Liminal (Soul Jazz)
Intense, spiritual jazz from Chile.
Eric Revis - Slipknots Through The Looking Glass (Pyroclastic)
Contemporary jazz exploring dissonance, but with a propulsive impetus.
Erland Cooper - Hether Blether (Phases)
Erland Cooper - Landform (Phases)
Final instalment of the majestic Orkney trilogy and its, to me, more satisfying digital companion piece.
Ezra Feinberg - Recumbent Speech (Related States)
Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij - Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij (Bandcamp)
Ezra Feinberg's Recumbent Speech brilliantly combines agile, repetitive picked guitar or percussion figures with shimmering synth textures to create something gently elevating. A great ensemble includes Chuck Johnson on pedal steel and John McEntire on drums. The collaboration with John Kolodij is a split LP.
FACS - Void Moments (Trouble In Mind)
Wiry, minimal, angular, determinedly dark, sometimes industrial post-punk from the Chicago trio.
Faten Kanaan - A Mythology Of Circles (Fire)
While the Brooklyn composer may be most interested in 'cyclical repetitions', what emerges most from her music is a keen sense of stillness, beauty and awareness of the moment.
Field Music - Making A New World (Memphis Industries)
Field Music's extraordinarily consistent strike rate continued with this outstanding song cycle that grew from projects with the Imperial War Museum, exploring the after-effects of the WW1. This still contains Field Music's by now familiar core ingredients - robust grooves, a Peter Gabriel meets Jeff Lynne-esque approach to melody and arrangement, intelligent song structures and bold lyrics.
Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters (Sony)
One part musical theatre and cabaret, another part Marc Ribot-esque avant garde percussive textures, Fetch The Bolt Cutters seemed to really cut through the noise of this year. Features some of the most disarming and honest lyrics of the year.
Fire! Orchestra - Actions for Free Jazz Orchestra (Rune Gramofon)
A bit of a detour for this improvising big band project as they interpret a work by Krysztof Penderecki. The result is ominous sounding and apposite for our dystopian moment.
Fleet Foxes - Shore (Anti)
Essentially a solo project from Robin Pecknold and emerging unexpectedly from lockdown, Shore provided a welcome ray of sunlight with its bright sounding production and lingering melodies.
Flora Yin-Wong - Holy Palm (Modern Love)