GUITARIST Richard Durrant will bring his new show, Stringhenge, to the National Centre for Early Music in York on September 22.

Stringhenge is built around acoustic music inspired by the British Isles, featuring the Uffington Tenor Guitar, built in Sussex, and a six-string Concert Guitar, built in Lincolnshire.

In his latest creative adventure – a wistful, peculiarly British, acoustic affair full of neolithic imagery, densely woven tunes – the maverick guitarist and composer is living on the folk/classical cusp, playing his own distinctive, solo guitar music alongside a fascinating collection of other English melodies. He also introduces his trademark arrangements of unaccompanied Bach, juxtaposed for the first time with British Isles folk tunes.

His inspiration was Durrant’s "life changing" concert guitar, built by Gary Southwell, the Lincolnshire Luthier, and notable mainly for the back and sides being made from an English black oak tree that was growing more than 5,000 years ago and then preserved in the anaerobic mud of East Anglia.

"This guitar has an almost sacred presence and Stringhenge grew out of my relationship with it," says Durrant. "It led me to commission the Uffington Tenor Guitar from Ian Chisholm, to write loads of new music and to gather the images for an entirely new show."

At one time, Durrant lived in a tumbledown 11th century Benedictine priory in Sussex at the feet of the famous Long Man hill carving, providing reinforcement for the musician’s desire to connect with the landscape. The artwork for Stringhenge was created by his sister, Ann Durrant, using material copied from ancient British rock carvings and turned into prints and lino cuts. She works in a mobile studio built into an old bus which has its own wood burning stove and printing press.

The Southwell concert guitar features several tiny “cup and ring” images taken from British rock carvings, while the Uffington Tenor has a shining silver Uffington Horse on its headstock.

"I have a deep love of our landscape but I’m also aware this is a particularly ugly time to be labelled patriotic, so I have struggled to steer a clear path," says Durrant. "One solution I have found is to embrace my musical, artistic perspective. This enables me to feel more ‘forensic’ and to body-swerve the murky detritus of our current politics.”

Stringhenge promises to be as beautifully produced and richly visual as any of Durrant’s tours of recent years and he will be combining his spellbinding guitar skills with his clever weaver of intriguing tales as his roots music link the Neolithic to the 21st century. "When I’m up on the Sussex Downs I often wish that I could look inside the hills," he says. "When I play music, it’s almost as if I can."

Tickets for Durrant's 7.30pm concert in York are on sale at £16, concessions £14, students £5, on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk