Regular readers will know that we like to feature an Instrumental Track on a Wednesday afternoon if we have something suitable, and that’s something we certainly have today. The name Kathryn Tickell should be a familiar one, her place in the modern English folk scene is both a vital and an assured one. Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle are her instruments of choice and she has been celebrating tradition, and in particular the music of her native Northumbria – and forging a vibrant new tradition fuzing modern influences to carry forward into the future of folk – for some decades now. Today’s instrumental features percussive clog dancing as part of the sound – and you can’t get more folk than that.
Named after the old Northumbrian word for twilight, The Darkening is made up of four North-East England-based members: Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, vocals), Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), Kieran Szifris (octave mandolin), Joe Truswell (drums, percussion, programming, plus Stef Conner from Cambridge (vocals, lyres, sistrum) and Josie Duncan from the Isle of Lewis (vocals, clarsach). Their new album ‘cloud horizons‘ is out on September 1 via Resilient Records. They’ll also be playing a lot of dates in the next few months:
Sat 19 August – Folk East
Fri 1 Sep – Lindisfarne Festival
Sat 2 Sep – Civic Theatre, Gosforth
Thurs 7 Sep – Victoria Hall, Settle
Fri 8 Sep – Theatre, Chipping Norton
Sat 9 Sep – Swanage Folk Festival
Sun 10 Sep – Tavistock Wharf, Devon
Mon 11 Sep – St Ives September Festival
Tues 12 Sep – South Street, Reading
Mon 16 Oct – Apex, Bury St Edmunds
Tues 17 Oct – The Stables, Wavendon
Wed 18 Oct – University of York
Mon 23 Oct – Gala Theatre, Durham
Tues 24 Oct – Waterside Arts, Manchester
Wed 25 Oct – St George’s, Bristol
Thurs 26 Oct – Cecil Sharp House, London
Fri 27 Oct – Ludlow Assembly Rooms
