It's a beautiful winter morning on the beach at Low Newton by the sea, on the north, Northumberland coast.

There's a shaft of wintry sunlight which is turning the beach silver where the water's been on it.

And out to the left I can see flocks of birds skimming over the surface of the sea.

Just a couple of people walking their dogs in the distance.

And behind us the ship in where you can get a great crab sandwich.

And over in the far distance, through the mist,

you can see Dunstanborough Castle looming up from a spit of land.

And it's bleak, but it's beautiful. And we come here to meet the unthanks,

and nothing could prepare you better

for the bleak, haunting sound of their music

than the bleak, haunting landscape that we're looking at now.

... haunting landscape that we're looking at now. I'm Oh

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the When I first heard the unthanks, they were actually called Rachel Unthank and the Winter Set,

and they made an album called The Bairns, which just struck me as being completely original.

It was of the folk tradition, but not of the folk tradition.

It seemed to be traditional music with a contemporary resonance.

And instead of the usual guitar, at the heart of the sound, was the piano.

And nowadays, Rachel and Becky Unthank, the two sisters at the heart of the band,

worked with Adrian McNally, who is their pianist and arranger,

who produces these wonderful soundscapes, which might include piano, a trumpet, a violin,

...