AFTER celebrating their tenth anniversary in the embers of 2015, The Unthanks began their second decade by winning the 2016 BBC Folk Awards Album of the Year prize with last year's Mount The Air.
The Northumbrian group of singing sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank and Rachel’s piano-playing husband, the composer and producer Adrian McNally, play the Royal Hall, Harrogate, tonight, when they will combine the traditional music of the North East with drawing inspiration from Miles Davies, Sufjan Stevens and Tom Waits.
The sisters consider their folk music to be a lifelong pursuit, where the first ten years is but a drop in the North Sea. Their hauntingly beautiful harmonising has prompted the NME to hail their singing as one of the "true wonders of 21st century music", while fellow musician Ade Edmondson encapsulates the magic of their music by saying "it hits you in your soul, rather than your head".
The Unthanks' summer will take them to Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland, the Beautiful Days Festival and Green Man Festival in Wales in August before their Home Gathering event in Newcastle with Richard Hawley on September 16 and 17.
Tickets for tonight's 8pm concert are on sale at harrogateinternationalfestivals.com or on 01423 562303.
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