Concise descriptions of The Unthanks range variously from “music that asks you to
consider everything you know and un-think it”, to “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”. If Art rock aspires to elevate rock from
entertainment to an artistic statement, it the could be said that The Unthanks
make Art Folk. Their approach to storytelling that makes easy bedfellows of polar
opposites such as staunch traditionalism and sonic adventure, sophisticated
harmony and direct social commentary, glacial minimalism and heartbreaking
empathy, earning them an army of notable fellow artists and storytellers, including
Mackenzie Crook, Maxine Peake, Nick Hornby, Martin Freeman, Elvis Costello,
Robert Wyatt, Rosanne Cash, Dawn French, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Mangan
and members of Portishead and Radiohead. Their Spring tour will draw from
recent projects and favourites from their fifteen-year repertoire.
“Few of their contemporaries, within both folk music and the wider artistic
spectrum, have such a keenly-honed ability to locate in a song the emotional
essence that can, in just a single phrase or vocal elision, cut one to the quick.” The
Independent
“The Unthanks are capable of such beauty that sometimes I can hardly bear to listen
to them.” Martin Freeman
“There are few times when you discover a band and they stalk immediately to the
heart of everything you love and hold dear.” Maxine Peake