Yarni

Hailed as “amazing” by the late, great electronic icon Andrew Weatherall, Yarni is a purely self-taught multi-instrumentalist, who has spent years honing his technical skills and tastes through a journey of ever-changing creation. It is within this freewheeling creative space that Benjamin Harris, AKA Yarni, has produced three albums of beautifully diverse and emotively engaging work – all charting his development from band member to producer, arranger and ensemble leader.

“I learned that the minute you start chasing a trend, you're already behind,” Yarni enthuses, his musical journey is one based on authentic artistic identity. His explorations into the world of electronic music produced the audiovisual debut ‘Entkommen’, which was inspired by the juxtaposition of brutalist architecture with nature in Derbyshire. Played out by the likes of Andrew Weatherall and DJ Harvey, its combination of soaring melody and grounded rhythm proved to be a sure-fire success on the dancefloor.

Last year self-released afro-jazz cut ‘Transitions’, picked up rave plaudits from the likes of Jazz FM, Worldwide FM and Bandcamp Weekly, but it was encompassing Yarni’s 2021 concept album ‘Boro’ - the product of a journey to Japan and an immersion in its uniquely historic musical space - that really cemented his new stance. The album focus track ‘Shibori’ landed in Spotify’s Class of 2021 for Fresh Finds UK and Ireland. It’s Yarni's ambition to “keep moving forward musically, touching on diverse influences from jazz, funk, rock and electronica”, that certified his success across the board, garnering widespread acclaim from tastemakers Luke Una, Tim Garcia (Jazz FM), BBC Radio 6’s Nemone describing his work as “absolutely sublime”, to the seal of approval from Electronic Sound Magazine.

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