Decca Classics announces River of Music the new album from “musical marvels” the Kanneh-Masons (The Guardian), set for release on 12 September 2025. Reuniting all seven siblings – Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata and Mariatu – River of Music marks their second joint release with Decca Classics, following the success of Carnival (2020). The album features new arrangements of classical works and folk songs, with the centrepiece being Schubert’s Trout Quintet – a beloved family favourite the siblings grew up listening to together.
Recorded in Abbey Road Studios in summer 2024, River of Music shares how the Kanneh-Masons’ love of music has been passed on through generations. As a river flows from multiple sources whilst carving its path, this album celebrates the sources of the Kanneh-Masons’ musical inspirations routed in personal stories of home, love and family. “This is a story about our family and the sources of our music,” writes Konya Kanneh-Mason, who shares a special family story with the album, Grandad’s Dream. “Music runs like a river through the generations… flowing from the places and dreams they passed on.”
At the heart of River of Music is Schubert’s Trout Quintet, recorded with Edgar Francis on viola, and Toby Hughes on double bass. As Sheku writes in his latest book, The Power Of Music – published by Viking and now available: “Time in the family nine-seater car was always music time, whether we were on the way to piano lessons, or to a music festival competition, or to visit grandparents. We had been listening to Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major, D.667, known as the ‘Trout’ Quintet, on repeat for a whole week. We heard the chatter of five voices in the piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass, mimicking each other, joking, teasing, each trying to have the last comment, laughing, debating, talking seriously, questioning, having fun. It made me understand that chamber music is like family life. In the love and safety of those you know intimately, ideas are thrown around, caught, developed and changed in a glorious conversation of lively, individual voices. We loved this piece, and sang out each part. By the time we played it together, years later, we knew the piece intimately, and we were enduringly in love with chamber music.”
Alongside Schubert’s Trout Quintet, the album includes new arrangements of classical music, folk songs and spirituals. From Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s African American spiritual “Deep River” to traditional Welsh hymns like “Ar Lan y Môr”, the music honours the family’s roots and the stories passed down through generations. It pays tribute to their Welsh grandmother, who followed love across the sea to Sierra Leone, and their Antiguan grandfather, who once dreamed of a musical life.
The siblings showcase their unique connection through their performing, arranging and writing skills such as in Braimah and Aminata Kanneh-Mason’s arrangement of John Hughes’ “Calon Lân”. The album also features “Hiraeth” by Isata Kanneh-Mason, with its title using the untranslatable Welsh word for longing, love and connection with the homeland. It encapsulates an impossible nostalgia for a home that is always in the heart and is evoked by all seven of the Kanneh-Mason siblings performing Isata’s emotive work. Throughout the collaborative album, the Kanneh-Masons celebrate their familial bond and musical legacy whilst showcasing each musicians’ individual artistry and identity.
Other musical works on the album include Handel’s Largo (Trio Sonata in G minor HWV 393), Elgar’s Sospiri Op.70 for violin & piano, Chopin’s Fantaisie-impromptu, Liszt’s Consolation No.3 and Dvořák’s Song to the Moon.
Konya Kanneh-Mason commented, ‘It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to share in my own words the stories and memories of our family through the generations. The creative arts are essential for all children and young people, and music and storytelling are central to our family life.’
On the 12 September, the siblings will come together in a performance at the Barbican, London, for a very special evening in support of the music education charity Music Masters. This unique concert coincides with the release of their new album, River of Music, and will feature works from the album as well as selections from their first family album, Carnival. Decca Classics is proud to support Music Masters alongside the Kanneh-Mason family, with all proceeds going directly to the charity’s transformative programmes to improve access to, quality of, and progression through music for children and young people in the UK, including through their Flagship Schools initiative and pioneering teacher training programme.
Listen to the first single – ‘Ar Lan Y Môr’ – on Spotify
