The Mercury Music Prize-nominated and ever-inspiring The Unthanks make their Kings Place debut with two special album release concerts of their fourteenth record, Sorrows Away.

With their 11-piece band, The Unthanks mark the Autumn release of their new album, Sorrows Away. The Unthanks have been described as “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”. Having previewed Sorrows Away at shows this Spring, the response from live audiences is an early indication that the record is at the very least going to breeze the daunting task of following up their BBC Folk Album Of The Year 2015, Mount The Air. Described as “an epic that Sigur Rós or Elbow would be proud of” by Drowned in Sound, and “as good as it gets… music that asks you to consider everything you know and un-think it” by Folk Radio, Mount The Air was awarded 5 stars by The Telegraph, R2, fRoots and Songlines, and 4 by Mojo, Q, Uncut, The Times, Independent and Guardian

At the nucleus of a constantly evolving unit is the traditional upbringing of Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank and the arrangements and writing of composer, pianist, producer and Yorkshireman, Adrian McNally. Using the traditional music of the North East of England as a starting point, the influence of Miles Davis, Steve Reich, Sufjan Stevens, Robert Wyatt, Antony & The Johnsons, King Crimson and Tom Waits can be heard in the band’s 14 records to date, earning them a Mercury Music Prize nomination and international acclaim along the way. The believability of their storytelling is admired by some of our best storytellers – Mackenzie Crook (with the band writing the soundtrack to his beautiful BBC adaptation of the Worzel Gummidge books), Maxine Peake, Nick Hornby, Martin Freeman, Robert Wyatt, Charles Hazelwood, Ben Myers and David Mitchell, to name a few. Billed as more joyful and uplifting than previous Unthanks records, Sorrows Away is perhaps both the pinnacle and yet just the latest in their story so far.

‘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

‘They run from the very root of folk music to the very tip of the branch.’ Elvis Costello

‘It’s quite a rare thing now. They’ve really got everything you could want from music. And I’m very fussy.’ Robert Wyatt