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THE UNTHANKS

HARMONIC presents

………………

THE UNTHANKS EXPLORE AND PERFORM THE MUSIC OF ROBERT WYATT AND ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS

+ guests

Whelan’s – Decmeber 13th & 14th

Tickets on sale Friday September 10th at 9am,  priced  €25.90 (including booking fee) from www.tickets.ie,  www.ticketmaster.ie & Ticketmaster outlets nationwide. 0818 719 300 – Republic of Ireland customers 0844 277 4455 – Northern Ireland customers 00353 1 456 9569 – International customer

“I am flattered and mystified! Their voices are so pure.” Antony Hegarty

“I love the idea. It makes me happy just thinking about it” Robert Wyatt

It was December 2010 that The Unthanks staged a concert that was at once both a slice of fun and probably their most daunting project yet. Over two sold out nights at the Union Chapel, London, their exploration of music by Antony & The Johnsons and Robert Wyatt was an irreverent joy, making The Independent’s Gigs of the Year list. Those London shows are captured on a live album which will be available later this year, and to mark the release, The Unthanks will take their Robert/Antony show on a short tour of UK and Ireland dates, previously only seen in London.

The special pre-Christmas concerts will feature a set of Robert Wyatt music and a set of Antony & The Johnsons songs, either side of an interval, exploring two of the most adventurous songbooks of the last half-century. The shows feature The Unthanks full 10 piece band including string quartet. During the Antony set, Jonny Kearney will also join them on piano, while Unthanks pianist Adrian McNally plays drums.

“It was just a whim really, though we’d been thinking about it for a few years,” says The Unthanks pianist and producer Adrian McNally. “We don’t look at it as a major artistic accomplishment or statement.. we’re just hoped to become more intimate and fascinated by music that we love and respect. It means the world to us to have the blessing and approval of Robert and Antony. We’ve got a bit of a nerve associating ourselves with such beautiful men, but it’s the music and words we want to learn from and share with other people. Maybe it’s not possible to perform without ego, but Robert and Antony exclude so much commitment and integrity in their music, their conversation with the human condition seems entirely selfless to me. There is never a spare note played or one struck to impress. They appear entirely consumed with the search for beauty and truth in a way that nourishes our philanthropic souls and reflects how we feel about folk music in its broadest sense.”

Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank have long found kindred energies in the proudly maverick English soul of Robert Wyatt. Their interpretation of his “Sea Song” was one of the real jewels of Mercury Music Prize nominated second album “The Bairns” and regarded by Wyatt as the finest interpretation by another artist of his songs. Robert does not perform live, so bravely, with Robert’s blessing, The Unthanks will cherry pick from his indefinable and peerless repertoire they hope to do justice. Similarly, they have previously dipped their toe in the water with Antony Hegarty’s music. “For Today I Am A Boy” was a showstopper in the early days of Rachel Unthank & The Winterset.

The Unthanks launch the live album (recorded last year at The Union Chapel) with an intimate performance at Whelan’s, Dublin on December 13th. www.the-unthanks.com www.twitter.com/TheUnthanks

THE UNTHANKSHaunting, original and magnificent” The Guardian Not many bands can count Radiohead, Portishead, Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt, Ben Folds, Ryan Adams, Rosanne Cash, Ewan McGregor and Nick Hornby amongst their admirers, but The Unthanks occupy a unique place in music. Northumbria sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank are unsentimental young storytellers outside of time, forging links between folk worlds old, new and other. Staunch traditionalism and sonic adventure ought to be polar opposites, yet they are easy bedfellows in the gentle hands of The Unthanks; nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and present in The Best Albums of the Decade (worldwide, all genres) in The Guardian and Uncut. Described by Britain’s leading music journalist Paul Morley as “absolutely exquisite”, 2010’s Here’s The Tender Coming was Mojo Magazine Folk Album of the Year. “once in a blue moon type of every now and again, you hear music that is so complete, so wonderful, unique and yet familiar that it stops you in your tracks. They have that blue moon magic about them, and they have it in spades” BBC Music “Music as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate..a sensationally graceful sound that can be epic and subdued, dreamy and specific, as well as supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern.” Paul Morley, Observer Music Magazine (Britain’s leading music journalist)

You Tube Links

Later With Jools Holland, BBC2 Last:  http://bit.ly/mh8zVF

Later With Jools Holland, BBC2 Queen of Hearts: http://bit.ly/lBqJd1

Later With Jools Holland, BBC2 Here’s The Tender Coming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bRR6DVWEUM

Later With Jools Holland, BBC2 Lucky Gilchrist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bRR6DVWEUM

TICKETS:

€25.90 incl booking fee available from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078]