Interview: guitarist Simon Thacker on blending Indian, Flemenco and Balkan influences on his new album

The alchemy of music informs much more than the title of the latest album from classical guitarist Simon Thacker, in duo with cellist Justyna Jablonska and featuring some strikingly eclectic guests and musical adventuring. The duo regard Karmana – Sanskrit for “performing anything by means of magic” – as representing a crucial stage in their musical development.The first album comprised entirely of the 38-year-old, East Lothian-based guitarist’s own compositions and “re-imaginings”, Karmana (Slap the Moon Records) not only features virtuosic duetting between guitar and cello, but includes Thacker’s arrangement of a traditional Roma song, sung by the Lublin-based Roma singer Masha Natanson, a fiery collaboration between cellist, guitarist and Indian tabla virtuoso Sarvar Sabri, and also an astonishing setting of The Highland Widow’s Lament, featuring singer-songwriter Karine Polwart and an uncanny soundscape of multi-tracked and reversed guitar and cello.