Yorkston Thorne Khan - Colston Hall presents at Bristol Folk House

Made up of singer/songwriters James Yorkston (guitar, nyckelharpa, voice), jazz musician Jon Thorne (double bass, voice) and 8th generation sarangi player and vocalist Suhail Yusuf Khan, Yorkston Thorne Khan return with their third album, Navarasa: Nine Emotions. After a chance meeting in 2015, the trio’s blend of jazz, Indian classical, dub reggae and UK folk has seen them create a critically-acclaimed new sound. Rolling Stone called their Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars album “a game-changing masterpiece,” while The Guardian pegged it as “bravely original.” Witness the band’s experimental attitude as they perform exciting originals and idiosyncratic covers.

Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars, the new album from Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, follows 2016’s critically acclaimed debut Everything Sacred – presenting a confluence of currents, among them the north Indian sarangi; jazz-tinged bass, reminiscent in places of Danny Thompson; acoustic guitar that owes a debt to Elizabeth Cotton, Dick Gaughan and Mississippi John Hurt; and three very different vocalists – James Yorkston (East Neuk of Fife), Jon Thorne (Isle of Wight) and Suhail Yusuf Khan (New Delhi).

The first track to be shared from Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars is False True Piya – mingling traditions as diverse as Britain and India via the Appalachian Mountains.

“Piya is a word in the Hindi language, meaning beloved,” explains Khan. “The Hindi lyrics of the song were composed and written by me. They talk about a lover who is longing for a beloved, devastated by pain. A point comes when the lover starts hallucinating that the beloved has arrived and starts having conversations with this hallucination. There is a strange feeling of dark happiness: the beloved is there, but only as a hallucination.” “When Suhail explained the Hindi lyric to me,” Yorkston continues, “it reminded me of the great old song The Daemon Lover, also known as The House Carpenter, so I sang a fragment of Annie Watson’s version to introduce the piece.”
This harmonious and singular collaboration can be found across all of Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars, and in fact, YTK’s Everything Sacred may be the only precedent. “The combination of a singer-songwriter, a jazz bassist and an Indian classical sarangi player is totally unheard off,” says Khan.

Venue open 19:00
Hall Doors 19:30
Show 20:00