The Unthanks: Sorrows Away Tour

With their 11-piece band, The Unthanks mark the Autumn release of their new album, Sorrows Away. The Unthanks have been described as “a take on tradition that flips so effortlessly between jazz, classical, ambient and post-rock, it makes any attempt to put a label on them a waste of time”.

Having previewed Sorrows Away at shows this Spring, the response from live audiences is an early indication that the record is at the very least going to breeze the daunting task of following up their BBC Folk Album Of The Year 2015, Mount The Air.

The Unthanks tells stories that capture children. They make music cutting edge enough to be BBC 6 Music regulars. They can equally be found on Radios 2, 3 and 4, reframing history and drawing together the worlds of folk, jazz, orchestral, electronic and rock music.

Billed as more joyful and uplifting than previous Unthanks records, Sorrows Away is perhaps both the pinnacle and yet just the latest in their story so far. In the seven intervening years since Mount The Air, The Unthanks have scaled up to self-composed projects with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Charles Hazelwood’s Army of Generals, and right down to their roots for the unaccompanied live record, Diversions Vol 5.

At the nucleus of a constantly evolving unit is the traditional upbringing of Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank and the arrangements and writing of composer, pianist, producer and Yorkshireman, Adrian McNally.