FRESH from their triumphant Celtic Connections launch gig Yorkston/Thorne/Khan are coming to Stirling.

The trio comprising James Yorkston (guitar/nyckelharpa/vocals), Jon Thorne (double-bass/vocals) and Suhail Yusuf Khan (sarangi/vocals) are embarking on an eight date Scottish tour to support their new album Navarasa: Nine Emotions including a date at the Tolbooth in Stirling. 

Navarasa: Nine Emotions is the trio’s third record following debut album Everything Sacred in 2016 and the follow-up Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars in 2017.

At the heart of YTK’s boundary breaking new album is what’s known in sanskrit as navarasa; the nine (nava) emotions or sentiments (rasa) that humans show. This central theme is a centuries-old organising principle and on their newly released record, YTK have paired each song to one of these emotions.  

Speaking ahead of the tour, Yorkston said: “Playing with Jon and Suhail is a woozy luxury.

“I'm looking forward to hanging out and getting back on stage.

“They both have very different musical backgrounds to me and it's always inspiring to be around them, we're always learning from each other.” 

There is a bricolage of diverse cross-cultural elements on Navarasa: Nine Emotions and all of what YTK create. James Yorkston weaves in Scottish folk, sangster and literary strands, Jon Thorne is grounded in jazz and groove.

What the New Delhi-based, eighth-generation hereditary musician Suhail Yusuf Khan brings to this feast of pulses and cycles is northern Indian classical, light classical (thumri, for example), Sufi devotional musical and literary forms. What binds these diverse musical strands together is, in James’ phrase, “a dark happiness.”

They play the Tolbooth on March 27, vist https://stirlingevents.org/tolbooth-event/yorkston-thorne-khan/ for tickets.