23 September 2026 – Irregang Take the Harp on a European Folk Road Trip With Harfenrundfahrt

German folk ensemble Irregang have released "Harfenrundfahrt", a twelve-track collection that treats traditional European music less like a museum exhibit and more like a very well-travelled suitcase. The album moves through material including "Merrily Kiss the Quaker", "E dame jolie", "Morrisons Jig", "La Biche Blanche", "Andro", "The Musical Priest", "The Oyster Wives Rant" and "The Road To Lisdoonvarna", alongside original or less familiar pieces such as "Godesses" and "Emmas Waltz".

The title roughly translates as a harp tour or harp journey, which is precisely what the record offers: traditions from different regions placed beside one another without pretending European folk music ever respected modern national borders particularly well. Released digitally today with a limited CD edition also available through the group, "Harfenrundfahrt" provides the acoustic end of a remarkably broad September 23 independent-release spectrum. On the same day listeners can choose industrial power electronics, experimental flute, post-punk, electronic R&B and now traditional jigs. The algorithm may require a lie-down.

Irregang's approach reminds us that "independent music" is not automatically synonymous with "new genre". Sometimes independence means musicians maintaining older repertoire outside the commercial mainstream, interpreting pieces that survived precisely because generations kept playing them. Several centuries before streaming, apparently, musicians had already invented catalogue longevity.