The Guardian has ranked the fifth studio album by the Slovenian trio Širom as the second-best folk album of the year. The British newspaper described the record In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper as “a rollercoaster journey showing the potential of traditional instruments to make mayhem”.

The Guardian also declared the record its folk album of the month in October. The British newspaper characterised the album as a brave and fresh contribution to contemporary folk music using an innovative approach to combine tradition with global influences and experimental twists.

Širom, whose name means “around” or “widely” in Slovenian, used more than two dozen instruments on the album including the Persian gheychak, Mongolian morin khuur and West African xylophones. There are also sounds reminiscent of the present day, and the end result is what the Guardian described as “intense, shining soundworlds” and “a vortex of time travel”.

The album features seven tracks that “come with fittingly mystical titles like Curls Upon the Neck, Ribs Upon the Mountain – a track that begins in intense fiddle harmonies before drums and wails ramp up a mood of menace – and No One’s Footsteps Deep in the Beat of a Butterfly’s Wings, which blends frisky bluegrass with a flute’s high sighs”.

The band members – Iztok Koren, Ana Kravanja and Samo Kutin – hail from the Slovenian regions of Prekmurje, Tolminsko and Kras, each of which is known for its own musical traditions and mystical landscapes. They describe their music as imaginary folk.

As stated on the official Širom website, “the intertwining of diverse musical approaches and tools, histories of sounds and unbridled musical imagination and craftsmanship is the expansive guiding principle” of the band, which formed a decade ago.

Each member of Širom also performs in a myriad of other bands and music projects, such as ŠKM Banda, Hexenbrutal, Bakalina Velika, Šalter Ensemble and Kačis.