Latest News
- The Unthanks Brass-Project Released on Record, Plus More Shows
- April 12th, 2012
Following last year’s Songs of Robert Wyatt & Antony & Johnsons, The Unthanks are pleased to announce that the second release on the RabbleRouser label Diversions series will be:Diversions Vol. 2: The Unthanks With Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band.
Retail Release Date: Monday 30th July
Album Launch: Cambridge Folk Festival – Saturday 28th July
Prior to the retail release and launch, the album will be exclusively available at brass shows during June.
The album will chart last year’s collaboration with the National Champions of Great Britain, featuring music written and arranged by Unthanks pianist and producer Adrian McNally, including The Father’s Suite, written in celebration of Rachel Unthank and McNally’s first child.
The album will be released this summer and the project returns to the stage with shows including York Minster, Liverpool Philharmonic, Victoria Theatre Halifax, Grassington and Cambridge Folk Festivals, and No Direction Home – the new festival by the End of the Road team. The collaboration is a spectacular, with The Unthanks and ‘Briggus’ making up over 30 people on stage. As well as music written specifically for the project, McNally adapts folk song by Ewan MacColl, Tommy Armstrong and Dave Sudbury, the latter being the song King of Rome, as performed at the BBC Folk Awards.
Watch King of Rome from the BBC Folk Awards: The Unthanks WIth Brighouse And Rastrick Brass Band at the BBC Folk Awards
Music also comes from the existing repertoire of The Unthanks, including versions of Patience Kershaw, Felton Lonnin and Gan To The Kye, adapted for brass by conductor Sandy Smith from McNally’s original string arrangements.
The record will be launched at Cambridge Folk Festival, but exclusively available before then only at the brass shows in June. Dates on the tour page.
- More Singing Weekends Announced Soon
- April 12th, 2012
Within the next couple of weeks, we will be announcing more singing weekends. The announcement as always will be exclusively through this mailing list. Join the mailing list here on the website. Then all you have to do is keep an eye on your inbox, and act fast if you’d like to come. All weekends so far have sold out within 24 hours of going on sale. Forthcoming weekends will be in late November and early December this year, plus January next year.
- An Intimate Evening With The Unthanks
- April 12th, 2012
An Intimate Evening With The Unthanks started last night and tours for the next five week. While many shows are sold out, there are some tickets left at a few shows. The tour is an opportunity to see The Unthanks close up and paired down, playing cosier venues, in the guise of their core quintet – their creative nucleus – for a more intimate and close-up musical and personal experience. Expect music from early albums, from recent projects, glimpses of future projects, individual performances from different members, and support from the magical Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell, though the show will avoid the usual support/break/headline act format. It should be a unique show. Dates on the tour page.
- First review for new album
- November 20th, 2011
“A triumphant excursion” – The Observer’s verdict on The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons by The Unthanks. Read the four-star review in full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/20/unthanks-robert-wyatt-antony-johnsons?INTCMP=SRCH
- Pre-Order the New Album Now
- November 16th, 2011
- On November 28th, The Unthanks release The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons, Live from The Union Chapel (Diversions Vol 1.)
Amongst the first to hear the record is Robert Wyatt himself, who makes the following extraordinary statement:
“Quite simply, Antony & The Johnsons and I have been blessed by angels. If I had to take a single summary of what Alfie and I have being doing over the years to the proverbial desert island I wouldn’t take one of our own records. I’d take the crystal clear interpretations of The Unthanks.” Robert Wyatt
Celebrating two of the most adventurous songbooks of the last half-century, album is the first volume in what will be a series of Unthank albums called Diversions. The series is designed to capture anddocument a prolific twelve months which has been full of unique projects for the Mercury nominated Tynesiders; from their hugely successful collaboration with National Champions of Great Britain, Brighouse and Ratrick Brass Band, to a soundtrack performed live to a new film made from archive footage of Britain’s shipyards, to the Hegarty / Wyatt project celebrated here.
Having licensed their last 3 releases to EMI Records from RabbleRouser Music (owned by The Unthanks pianist, arranger and producer Adrian McNally), the Diversions series is released solely in the UK on RabbleRouser, while The Unthanks continue their relationship overseas with Rough Trade, who release the record in the rest of the world. The Unthanks are not necessarily done with the majors. New deals are on the table, but having reached the end of one contract, the band felt it an opportune moment to document these projects in a more low-key and homemade fashion, before considering their next move when they return with their 5th studio album proper.
A preview of the album set to photos from the Union Chapel show:
You can buy the album directly from The Unthanks on-line shop, on the forthcoming tour of the show, or from the external links on the album page. - New Animated Video Released for Last
- November 11th, 2011
- A new video made by acclaimed animator Nick Murray Willis has been made for the title track of The Unthanks album, ‘Last’. The moving animation is poignant to this week’s Remembrance Day thoughts. Donations to http://www.poppy.org.uk/ There is no commercial release with the new video. It is available to watch from today on You Tube.
