FOLK duo Dipper Malkin, made up of John Dipper playing viola d’amore and Dave Malkin on guitar and vocals, is coming to Pound Arts Centre in Corsham on April 21.

Their first album Tricks of the Trade won high praise and was included in The Sunday Times Top 10 Folk/Roots albums of 2017.

The duo have performed at Folk East, Towersey Festival, Sidmouth Folk Week, Oxford Folk Week, The South Bank Centre and are on the line up of more festivals and folk clubs throughout the summer.

Mr Malkin said: “The greatest compliment we could think to pay to our ancestors, those responsible for this rich and fascinatingly idiosyncratic tradition, is to elevate the repertoire they’ve provided for us.

“It’s important to us both that we look outwards for inspiration. We aim to present work on a par with contemporary classical music in terms of its intrinsic artistic value, produced to the standard of a big-budget release, as thrilling and accurately executed as improvised jazz, but most importantly rooted in our tradition.”

Mr Dipper added:“I began investigating new ways to play more complex polyphonic accompaniments. Discussions with players such as Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, who uses instruments with a greater number of strings, led me to experiment with the viola d’amore. I’ve developed a new tuning system for the instrument, which has allowed my playing style and new compositions to flourish.”

The pair have been labelled ‘glorious’ by Acoustic Magazine, ‘moving and thrilling’ by Verity Sharp of BBC Radio 3 and ‘exquisite’ by The Sunday Times.

The Show in Pound Arts Centre begins at 7.30pm, tickets £10/£9 conc. Tel. 01249 701628 / 712618 www.poundarts.org.uk