Kathryn Tickell

‘The Darkening’ is the Northumbrian name for twilight, but this band’s music blazes fiercely…

Kathryn Tickell – Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle

Joe Truswell – drums, programming

Amy Thatcher – accordion, vocals

Kieran Szifris – octave mandolin

Stef Conner - voice, lyres / Josie Duncan - voice, harp

Musicians from Northumberland, Scotland and England invoke the dark, powerful, shamanic sounds of Ancient Northumbria and broadcast them to the modern world. 

Their inspiration comes from the wild, dramatic, weather-bitten countryside along Hadrian’s Wall, which seems so quintessentially Northumbrian…and yet, almost 2000 years ago that same landscape was inhabited by people from around the world, worshipping different gods and following different customs.

Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening embrace that global perspective, bringing some of the oldest Northumbrian tunes and songs throbbing to life, intermingling them with new material and binding it all together with contemporary resonance and attitude. 

★★★★ "...an exceptional band" The Observer.