Delphine Dora, Mocke

The mellow fruits of a long-term, long(ish)-distance collaboration between Paris natives Delphine and Mocke, who now respectively reside in Brussels and the "deepest French countryside", Le Corps défendant is an unorthodox, Arcadian folk-rock masterpiece come out of the woods to steal our hearts and minds. Yes, we will always have a terrible weakness for smoky female vocals and lingering modal melodies - can't help it - and this record hits the same sweet spot as two of our other favourite 2017 releases, namely Brannten Schnure's Muschelsammlung and Holidays' reissue of Maria Monti's stunning Il Bestiario. Like those two records, L.c.d. is an unusually urbane, jazz-damaged take on misty, mystic pastoralism, nestling free improvisation inside carefully and concisely wrought arrangements (whether or before or after the fact).