Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, Green Door Store, Brighton

Ex-Stereolab artiste hits the stage late but still impresses

Perhaps most famous as the singer in seminal Nineties art-pop band Stereolab, Laetitia Sadier has worked hard in recent years to establish herself as a solo artist in her own right through a series of well-received avant-muzak albums, including this year’s Finding Me Finding You.

Black Honey, Concorde 2, Brighton

★★★BLACK HONEY, CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON Rising indie pop stars return home

Rising indie pop stars return home

The first thing that hits me as I walk into Concorde 2 is the age and energy of the audience, dominated by excitable booze-fuelled teenagers. Black Honey themselves are pretty young for a band capable of quickly selling out a 600-capacity venue, with the singer noting that “it feels like just yesterday we played here and couldn’t sell two tickets”. Their following has grown steadily over the last few years, thanks to their accessible pop singles and constant comparisons to Lana Del Rey and Lush.

DVD/Blu-ray: One More Time with Feeling

Grief and art mix in a subtly intimate Nick Cave documentary

“But when did you become an object of pity?” Nick Cave asks himself. Brighton’s streets have become an obstacle course of concerned strangers and acquaintances, in the arms of whom he may find himself collapsed, crying. Such indignity was his grief’s smallest cost, after his 15-year-old son Arthur fatally fell from a cliff in 2015.

Brighton Festival 2017: 12 Free Events

BRIGHTON FESTIVAL 2017: 12 FREE EVENTS Brighton Festival CEO Andrew Comben's guide to this year's best free stuff

Brighton Festival CEO Andrew Comben's guide to this year's best free stuff

The Brighton Festival, which takes place every May, is renowned for its plethora of free events. The 2017 Festival is curated by Guest Director Kate Tempest, the poet, writer and performer, alongside Festival CEO Andrew Comben who’s been the event's overall manager since 2008 (also overseeing the Brighton Dome venues all year round). This year the Festival’s theme is “Everyday Epic”.

CD: Fujiya & Miyagi - Fujiya & Miyagi

A decade-and-a-half into their career, the misleadingly named electro-pop trio remain strong

Fujiya & Miyagi are greater than the sum of their parts. Singer David Best recently explaned that he "sees it as an album rather than a compilation", but Fujiya & Miyagi’s sixth album is, essentially, a collection of three EPs, combining 2016’s EP1 and EP2 with three sparkling new tracks.

10 Questions for Poet Tommy Sissons

10 QUESTIONS FOR POET TOMMY SISSONS Rising young poet talks war, grime, social media and... poetry

Rising young poet talks war, grime, social media and... poetry

Tommy Sissons is a 21-year-old poet, originally from Brighton, now based in London. He has won a number of poetry slam championships, and has performed across the UK at venues ranging from the Boomtown Festival to the Royal Albert Hall. His debut collection Goodnight Son was published last year. Sissons has taught classes and workshops as far afield as Germany and as close to home as the Victoria & Albert Museum. He was a regular presenter of Channel 4 music programme Four to the Floor and was commissioned by the BBC to write a Remembrance Day poem in 2015.

CD: Rag'n'Bone Man - Human

Debut from already-famous Brighton soul star presses the right buttons

It’s an extraordinary story about a ordinary-seeming guy. No one can accuse the industry of promoting pretty blond teens this time. Rory Graham, the emerging blues-tinged soul star from the deep south – Sussex, of course, or the Uck Delta, perhaps – has built his reputation from the ground up, working as a carer, initially, as he developed the Rag’n’Bone Man persona.

Unforgotten, Series 2, ITV

UNFORGOTTEN, SERIES 2 Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar are back on another cold case

Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar are back on another cold case

Historic unsolved murders have become their own mini-genre, with the likes of Cold Case lurking in the small print of the schedules and Silent Witness still going strong in its 20th series. A hit the first time out in 2015, Unforgotten is back with a new investigation of another mystery cadaver.

CD: The Fiction Aisle - Fuchsia Days

★★★★ CD: THE FICTION AISLE - FUCHSIA DAYS Second from Brighton outfit heads into deliciously cosmic easy listening

Second from Brighton outfit heads into deliciously cosmic easy listening

Bands have grown slack about releasing albums. The Beatles used to pump them out, releasing both Help and Rubber Soul in the first half of 1965, whereas, say, Bastille’s second album arrives three years after their debut (although they released a “mixtape” in-between). Feeble. Kudos, then, to The Fiction Aisle, the newish project from Thomas White of Electric Soft Parade and Brakes. Their second album appears a mere six months after their debut. And it’s well worth investigating.

theartsdesk at Love Supreme Festival 2016: Kamasi Washington, Esperanza Spalding and Stanley Clarke

Laid back atmosphere, inspiring music at the UK’s only green field jazz festival

“Can you take a picture of us looking really middle-aged?”

Two woman in their forties are enjoying the sunshine on the opening afternoon of Love Supreme, sipping prosecco from the comfort of their fold-up camping chairs as a charismatic, vapour-voiced Lianne La Havas launches into “Unstoppable”. I watch them scroll through the photos I’ve taken and collapse into fits of giggles. The funny thing is though, they fit right in. They’re doing this festival as it was meant to be done.