Tokyo's Koryo Saito has his debut album Mirage out this week on Timbreland Recordings. He fuses electonics and Japanese minimalism with a love for British folk music with beautiful results!
http://www.timbreland.co.uk/artist_details/23_koryo+saito.php

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Dan Haywood's New Hawks album came out on double CD and triple vinyl boxset in December, and is out on download as of this week.

No DiS recognition of it's existence yet. These people have been saying this:

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2011/01/dan-haywoods-new-hawks-dan-haywoods-new-hawks/

"The self titled album by DHNH is another personal vision: five years in the making and the Bardic chronicle of Haywood's journey around rural Scotland. Spread over three LPs (or two CDs) this has the feeling of a lifework in its extensive meditations and general sprawl. Haywood's peculiar vocals take a bit of warming to, but it's a nice varied set, having the feel of a dusty Californian folk-rock sunset as much as the misty Scottish wilds."
Shindig Magazine

“the album is a defiantly individual, British exploration of nature and human relationships. Surely a future cult classic, it's raw take on folk and country are a timeless delight”
24/7 Magazine

“Dan Haywood is a PSOW (poet/singer/ornithologist/whatever) and this epic 32-song album arises from the labour of slogging around rural Scotland, checking out the birds and meditating on the strangeness of life.
And charmingly, it succeeds in being both engaging and oddly uplifting while also being as dour in texture as a North Sea shoreline. Guitar strings scrape, fiddles yawn, percussion clatters, Dan's small, hard voice skitters like a stone, barely tuned. "I feel so pregnant I could puke." Well, yes.”
Independent On Sunday

"a weird wild-eyed mix of cosmic country and chamber-folk...opaque poetry with a deadpan English drawl that recalls Syd Barrett and Decca-era Bowie...makes for a thrilling noise”
Uncut Magazine

“let the album run and a continuous flow of poetic musings and rambling verses reveals itself”
The Fly Magazine

“An ambitious record certainly. Haywood, originally from Lancaster, got sick of everything and buggered off to Scotland to explore wildlife and when he returned spent five years making this record. Its a curious mix of Scottish folk music, Robyn Hitchcock-style whimsy and West Coast (of America) laid back songwriting recalling David Crosby and pals. The voice is sure to be an acquired taste to some sitting on top of the mix recalling English eccentrics such as Vic Goddard, Syd Barrett and their Australian/New Zealand counterparts Pip Proud and Alastair Galbraith, underneath it traditional folk strings tangle with steel guitars, heartily strummed acoustic guitars and clattery drums. The songs are eccentric, stop-starty and recall The Moles forgotten madcap finale 'Instinct'. It's hard at first to get a grip of it but the more I listen the more impressive it's becoming and should certainly be given time to reveal itself. The type of record that someone, somewhere is going to fall helplessly in love with - it could even be me... We'll see. Comes on double CD and triple vinyl box set.”
Norman Records

“This is the new album by the wonderful Dan Haywood's New Hawks, brought to you by our good friends at Timbreland Records. It's a 32 track triple-vinyl album of spooked psychedelia, folk and country rock. Dan's singular vocals, shot through with a warm Black Country twang, manage to invoke the spirit of prime Roy Harper and early John Otway, whilst his songwriting, charting his travels round rural Scotland, somehow manages to sound both unique yet familiar. The vinyl boxed set is a strictly limited edition, though it will be available as a double CD in the new year. We can't recommend this album highly enough - it's already earned its place as one of the Folk Police albums of the year.”
Folk Police