In Thomas Blake’s review of their 2016 debut album ‘Everything Sacred‘, he explained how the seeds of Yorkston/Thorne/Khan go back to 2011 when James Yorkston struck up a chance friendship with Suhail Yusuf Khan, a singer from New Dehli (who also happens to be one of the world’s highly acclaimed players of the Sangari, an Indian stringed instrument whose sound is said to resemble that of the human singing voice). The duo became a trio when Yorkston invited previous collaborator and jazz-trained double bassist Jon Thorne to join them. Four years, a handful of live dates and a recording session in Northern Ireland later, this motley combination birthed an album…
That debut was an album that “bristles with inventiveness and skill, an album that is more than the sum of its already impressive parts.” The following year they released Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars. In his review, David Kidman concluded that it “defiantly establishes the distinctive trio as an evolving unit with much more to say and explore than just one album’s worth. They’re clearly not running short of ideas, and I can only wonder at the increasingly enterprising music-making a third album might bring.”
There was clearly a lot of truth in those words as they announce the release of their third album “Navarasa : Nine Emotions ” (January 24th, 2020) which promises to take their journey many leagues on. Before sharing some background, take a listen to lead track ‘Now Westlin’ Winds’, a popular Robert Burns poem which has most famously been covered by Dick Gaughan and most recently by Rant on their new album The Portage (a Featured Album of the Month and reviewed here).
The accompanying press lays out the inspiration behind what is sure to be, based on the evidence above, their most rewarding to date…
Navarasa : Nine Emotions – Music and poetry, pulses and cycles
To say poetry and music have been inseparable since time immemorial is hardly profound. But the artful mind-meld that is ‘Now Westlin Winds’ adds an intriguing dimension. YTK keep the life-destroying Act I of Robert Burns’ poem ‘Now Westlin Winds, (And Slaught’ring Guns)’ and deliciously transplants its disjoined, nature-extolling and life-affirming Act II onto Indian soil with a composition “in Purbi, a specific dialect of old Hindi, also known as Hinduvi” set in the seasonal raga, the springtime Bahar. “I learnt the song,” says Suhail, “by listening to various qawwali [Muslim devotional song] singers singing at Hazrat Nizammuddin’s dargah [shrine] [in Delhi]. Its source is Hazrat Amir Khusrau.” Thus YTK unite one of the key spiritual visionaries and architects of Hindustani art music, the poet-philosopher Hazrat Amir Khusrau with the key literary visionary of Scottish and Scots-language culture, Robert Burns. A tour-de-force emerges.
Other sources include the Anglo-Scottish ballad tradition with ‘Twa Brothers’, the singing of the Aberdeenshire Traveller Jeannie Robertson with ‘The Shearing’s Not For You’ and the Punjabi-language qawwali praise song ‘Waliyan da Raja’ (‘King of Saints’).
And where poetry and music are, usually rhythmicality will be present whether in its actual presence or its avoidance. ‘Twa Brothers’ begins with a twenty-second burst of bols (mnemonic rhythm syllable) vocal composition. (Bols is a device they explored differently on their take on Ivor Cutler’s ‘Little Black Buzzer’ on Everything Sacred.) “Clearly, the mood/emotion of the song was set by the lyrics sung by James,” says Suhail. “The tabla bols are used as a sonic reaction to the lyrical expression of the song.” ‘Twa Brothers’ develops into an exchange between an allegorical murder narrative and bols rhythmicality set – with added corvid calls.
Another feature of YTK’s music is pulses and cycles. As James says on the subject: “I love the great Irish uilleann pipers – Séamus Ennis and Willie Clancy, for example – and their work with pulses and cycles definitely affects the “colours” I use on the guitar, underneath Suhail’s singing.”
“I’m conscious of creating fixed points in the music,” says Jon, “to provide gravity and context for the improvising. Indian music relies a lot on drones and James loves Kraut Rock which often uses the same principle. I’m heavily influenced by a lot of the music on ECM records where often the double-bass is the anchor for a lot of modal improvising, although when I’m in the room recording, I try to focus purely on listening and responding in the moment to the players and the piece rather than mimicking a style.”
We’ll be bringing you more on the album soon. Yorkston/Thorne/Khan will play a special album launch show at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections before their own UK headline tour in March.
Navarasa : Nine Emotions
- Sukhe Phool – Karuna (sorrow)
- The Shearing’s Not For You – Bibhatsya (disgust)
- Thumri Bhairavi – Raudra (anger)
- Westlin’ Winds – Adbutha (surprise/wonder)
- Song for Oddur – Shringara (love/beauty)
- The North Carr – Hasya (laughter)
- Twa Brothers – Bhayanaka (terror/fear)
- Waliyan da Raja – Veera (heroism/courage)
- Darbari – Shantha (peace/tranquility)
Navarasa : Nine Emotions is out 24 January 2020 and will be available to pre-order on Dom Mart-exclusive deluxe double vinyl (coloured vinyl with three exclusive songs + patch), double vinyl (with the three exclusive tracks), CD and digitally. Pre-order: Dom Mart | Digital
Upcoming Yorkston/Thorne/Khan Scottish live dates
22nd January – Celtic Connections @ Drygate Brewery, Glasgow – Album Launch
21st March – CatStrand, New Galloway
22nd March – Summerhall, Edinburgh
23rd March – Perth Theatre, Perth
24th March – Eden Court, Inverness
25th March – The Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore
26th March – The Barn, Banchory
27th March – Tolbooth, Stirling
28th March – Eastgate Theatre, Peebles
https://www.yorkstonthornekhan.com/
Photo Credit: Jon Pountney