Nearly two-and-a-half years on from the release of Matanë Malit the quartet of singer Elina Duni have a new record Dallëndyshe released this week.

A piano trio plus the voice of Duni, the album retains the same personnel for this highly folkloric approach on an album whose title translates as ‘The Swallow’, the singer’s husband Colin Vallon an engaged presence on opener ‘Fëllënza’ (‘The Partridge’). Songs of Albanian exile (Duni writes in a sleeve note: “exile is forever a wound”), Albanian and Kosovan traditional music arranged by the singer whose voice forms the chief element of the ECM-issued album recorded in France in July last year.

A live version of the traditional Albanian song ‘Nënë moj’ (‘O Mother’), a bride’s song of exile and despair, featured on the album, is above