NEUK WIGHT DELHI ALL-STARS

The second Yorkston/Thorne/Khan album represents 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. The combination is unusual: YTK's debut Everything Sacred, released in 2016, may be the only precedent. Yet while, on paper, the constituent elements might seem disparate, the new album is, if anything, even more coherent than its predecessor. It also basks in a truly magnificent title: Neuk Wight Delhi All Stars. Just don't call it fusion.??'The last Yorkston/Thorne/Khan album was seen by some as fusion,' says James Yorkston, 'and I can see that. There are elements of jazz and Indian classical tradition coming together with acoustic song. But the word fusion suggests forethought, an attempt to combine the most disparate elements possible, and YTK wasn't like that. Suhail and I met purely by chance and became friends. We're pals. I just see it as a band.'??YTK released their first album, Everything Sacred, in 2016, but they are hardly lacking in experience. Songwriter James Yorkston's 2002 debut was named Rough Trade's album of the year and he has gone on to work with everyone from Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) and Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor to Martin Carthy and Bert Jansch. He has also released a total of seven acclaimed solo albums for Domino alongside many other Fence Records releases. There's also been a book of tour diaries and, in 2016, the novel Three Craws. The bassist and composer Jon Thorne, who came to prominence with Lamb, has also worked with Iron & Wine, Robert Fripp, Donovon, Sam Lee, Vashti Bunyan and Green Gartside. He and Yorkston have been playing together since 2009. YTK took root when Yorkston met Suhail Yusuf Khan, the awardwinning sarangi player and singer from New Delhi, backstage at a gig in Edinburgh. Khan is part of several groups including Advaita, an eight-piece Indian band recorded by John Leckie. His grandfather, Ustad Sabri Khan, played with George Harrison, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin.??Together, they walk on untrodden ground.??'The combination of a singer-songwriter, a jazz bassist and an Indian classical sarangi player is totally unheard off,' says Khan. 'For me, the lack of percussion, especially, gives me the freedom to do loads more sonically. I can be minimalistic and more extravagant at the same time. YTK is also different to anything else I'm involved in because I am constantly responding to the musical energies of James and Jon, trying to absorb the influences they bring to the table and react to that. It's a process of sharing and learning.' ??Tracklist:?1. Chori, Chori?2. Samant Saarang / Just A Bloke?3. Bales?4.Jaldhar Kedara (Wedding Song)?5. False True Piya?6. The Blue Of The Thistle?7. Recruited Collier?8. The Blues You Sang?9. Halleluwah?10. One More Day (Jon's Song)?11. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Vinyl LP only track)?12. Drone (Vinyl LP only track)