The Unthanks invite you to Mount the Air. An invitation to be free, weightless, airborne, to transcend reality, to enter your imagination, to raise the possibilities above the ordinary, to become one with nature, to give yourself up to nature and let the wind carry you to new places. To fly!
Mount The Air is the first studio album by The Unthanks since Last was released four years ago. The album has been two years in the making and is the first to be made in their own makeshift studio in Northumberland, set up in an old granary building, 200 yards from where Rachel Unthank and Adrian McNally live with their 2 sons, 1 and 3 years old.
It is the first Unthanks record to feature writing from all 5 core members, including debut contributions from both Rachel and Becky Unthank, as well as continued and more extensive writing from pianist and producer Adrian McNally, including the opening 10 minute title track. Musically more ambitious than ever, the Mercury nominated Geordies are still a combination of grounded tradition and filmic orchestration, but with Mount The Air, they take on flavours from traditions as diverse as Spain, India, Blue Note and, er, Trip Hop.
Mount The Air is the work of an act who still believe whole heartedly in the value of the album as an artform. On very limited resources and makeshift facilities, they have shown extraordinary commitment and devotion to that art-form, to create their finest work yet.
For an album so long in the making, there will considerable anticipation for Mount The Air, not least from the many fellow performers who count themselves as fans of The Unthanks, including Martin Freeman, Elvis Costello, Colin Firth, Robert Wyatt, Ben Folds, Ryan Adams, Rosanne Cash, Dawn French, Ade Edmondson, Al Murray, Matt Lucas, Stephen Mangan, Boy George, Paul Morley, Ewan McGregor and Nick Hornby.
February 2015
