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R.Seiliog announces his new single 'Cloddio Unterdach' available via digital service platforms on the 12th of October. It's lifted from his forthcoming 'Shedhead' EP released through Turnstile Music on the 18th of November.
“bold and beyond brilliant” Uncut Magazine
R.Seiliog is the alias of North Walian skewed musician/producer Robin Edwards. His forthcoming Shedhead EP is the latest bold futuristic release from a prolific outsider artist with a vivid imagination, to be released via Turnstile Music.
Through its five tracks Edwards forges together pulsing elements of Komische influenced electronics, skittering psych splattered samples, enveloping trance like ambience, underpinned by an appreciation of un-shifting Krautrock time signatures. This is the unique shapeshifting sound of imminent space and time travel, weightless and genreless, interjected by searing moments of revelation.
“It’s like the slipping clutch of a self combustion engine built from mirrors blackened by astral soot reflecting back the whole in each tarnished component. “ Says Edwards “Inspired by the shape of whispering solar winds or a Cage chance conservationist uttering “it looks deliberate, let it dry!"
“There's something for every-single-one unified in the omni shallow depths; A fast one, slow one, happy one, sad one - and another one.” notes Edwards “Instrumental meditations on cats chasing tails, autumnal trips to short sighted opticians and much more, or less”
R.Seiliog emerged from the pine coned hills of Peniel, North Wales.Releasing the warm analog psychedelia of 2012's Shuffles EP, and his debut long player 2013's Doppler which was a wide-eyed homage to Krautrock. Manic Street Preachers were so inspired by his debut album Doppler that the band entrusted Edwards to remix Manic Street Preachers’ single ‘Futurology.’
In 2014 the release of his critically acclaimed second album ‘In Hz’ a masterful work of convoluted drone and electronics. Which led Thump to herald it as “So good it hurts” and Mojo Magazine to say “R.Seiliog presides over a subtle, imaginative record that transcends many genres.” R. Seiliog’s work has received airplay from the likes of Huw Stephens, 6 Music - Mary Anne Hobbs, Radcliffe and Maconie and Lauren Laverne.
To coincide with the release of the Shedhead EP, R.Seiliog is set to perform at a number of Welsh shows this Autumn and Winter, with more UK shows to be announced shortly for the new year.
R.Seiliog’s forthcoming dates:
Oct 14 - Carmarthen, The Parrot
Oct 21 - Newport, Le Pub
Oct 22 - Cardiff, Swn Festival
Nov 12 - Aberystwyth, Rummers
Nov 25 - Pontypridd, Clwb Y Bont
Links:
http://www.turnstilemusic.net/rseiliog-1/
@turnstilemusic
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“popular, transient, expendable, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business” Richard Hamilton once said of Pop Art back in 1956. ‘Y Ddawns’ (The Dance) the new Welsh single by Ani Glass is both pop and art combined.
Produced by W H Dyfodol (aka Haydon Hughes & Y Pencadlys) the song is a rallying call for those seeking inspiration in language and art – the dance is the imagination and the music the language. The ‘futility’ mentioned in the lyrics refers to the pressures of everyday life, a straight-jacket between narrow walls – a life going too fast to live pop and art - but too young to give up hope.
Dance, dance, dance to the radio ….. dance to the revolution……. this is pop music on message!
Biog
Ani Glass is the persona of Cardiff-based electronic pop musician, producer, artist and photographer, Ani Saunders. Fiercely proud of her heritage, Glass sings in her native languages Welsh and Cornish and last year released her fist solo material with lead single Ffôl being chosen as single of the week on BBC Radio Cymru and gaining plays on BBC 6 music.
Ani is also known for her work with The Pipettes, joining in 2008 to record the Martin Rushent-produced Earth Vs. The Pipettes album. Prior to her stint with the polka-dotted pop band, Glass was in Genie Queen, managed by OMD’s Andy McCluskey. Most recently she has fronted The Lovely Wars, releasing the Young Love EP - the title track being Quietus writer Aug Stone’s Song of 2013 and the Brân i Frân single, much praised by Everett True “SO F*****G WONDERFUL!”.
Ani collaborated with international Welsh artist Ivor Davies in February and is currently working on an EP inspired by his exhibition Silent Explosion/Ffrwydrad Tawel.
Ani Glass upcoming shows.
5th June - Gwdihw (su[porting Vogue Dots, Cotton Wolf, Alphabetic)
17th June - Sherman Foyer Sessions (support from Parcs) + Ani Saunders exhibition
2nd July - Cardiff Castle (Tafwyl)
23rd October - Swn Festival
If the video is already on the Welsh Music YouTube Videos Top 50 page then all you need to do is click the thumbnail and look for the star rating widget at the bottom of the popup screen. You can now rate the video out of 5 and help move it toward the Number 1 spot (see screenshot below). The YouTube Top 50 page welcomes all genres of music and we will announce the Number 1 video on the front page of AC and via social media each week.
1. Click HERE (or on the Top 50 page or from your profile page). You will need to be logged in to AmeriCymru to add a video. Be sure to add ONLY the YouTube id or the complete YouTube url. (see screenshot below)
2. On your video page click the 'Update' icon (see screenshot below).
3. Set the category to 'Music' (if it isn't already) and you are good to go. Your video can be rated and promoted either from the video page or from the YouTube Welsh Music Video Top 50 page.
N.B. Please note that any videos posted should be in compliance with copyright law. If it is your own video, that's fine. If it is an official video posted by the artist that is also fine.
An interview with John Griffiths of Welsh dub/electronica band - Llwybr Llaethog
Llwybr Llaethog on the Wiki : "Founded in the north Welsh town of Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1985 by John Griffiths and Kevs Ford, the two teens had spent the seventies growing up in the town's decaying industrial surroundings. The two were heavily influenced by reggae and the punk scenes that were sweeping the UK. After several abortive attempts to start bands, the turning point came in 1984 when John Griffiths was on vacation in New York City and was impressed by a group of youths he saw at a nightclub breakdancing, and the sounds of DJ Red Alert.
After returning to Wales, Griffiths fixed on the idea of marrying hip hop and far left politics with his native Welsh language. Llwybr Llaethog's debut release was an EP for the Welsh record label Anhrefn Records in 1986, entitled Dull Di Drais, which combined Llwybr Llaethog's leftist political messages with what would become the band's trademark sound of turntable scratching, audio sampling, hip-hop, and cut-and-paste production. The band were also heavily promoted by British radio DJ John Peel."
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the new album 'I'r Dim'?
John: It's a series of experimental recordings made at Stiwdio Neud Nid Deud in Cardiff & Stiwdio BOS in Llanerfyl.
I can safely say it's unlike anything we've done previously, and has been described as "like a soundtrack for an imaginary horror film" & "musique concrete". We mixed field recordings, malfunctioning electronics, vinyl crackle and a few musical instruments. The title means "Ideal" 0r "Spot on", but translates literally as "To the nothing".
AmeriCymru: How did the band come to be formed and how did you choose the name Llwybr Llaethog?
John: We recorded our 1st ep whilst living in London. I found the name in the dictionary and thought it'd be cool to have a name that no-one outside Wales could pronounce. It was a joke really, I didn't expect to be explaining it for the following 30 years. Anhrefn records released our 1st two singles.
AmeriCymru: Your music is a mix of various genres including rap, dub, reggae, hip hop, and punk. How would you describe your sound and who would you rate as major influences?
John: I suppose our sound is a mixture of the music that's influenced us, with our own input. Growing up in the 60s we were into rock music [The Who, Rolling Stones et. al.], then discovered dub reggae and got into punk rock in the 70s. Adrian Sherwood's ONU Sound label was a major influence, as was King Tubby & Lee Perry.
AmeriCymru: How has the Welsh language music scene changed in recent decades?
John: It's diversified. We still need some groundbreaking electronic acts though.
AmeriCymru: You were featured on the John Peel show a number of times. What are your memories of John? How important was his support for Welsh music back in the 80's?
John: He was very supportive of us, gave us 4 sessions on his show and played just about every track we released.
He was a nice bloke, despite being a Liverpool supporter! He used to ring me up to hear how to pronounce Welsh song titles when I lived in London, I miss his show - & knowing we had an ally at BBC central.
He didn't play all Welsh music that came out in the 80s, he played the stuff he liked, bands such as Datblygu, Anhrefn, Plant Bach Ofnus and us.
AmeriCymru: Where can people go to buy your music online?
John: www.llwybrllaethog.co.uk
AmeriCymru: What's next for Llwybr Llaethog?
John: Working on a new album now...it'll be more poppy than "I'R DIM", more electronic and dancey.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
John: Try our album "STWFF" if you're not familiar with our stuff - there's something for everyone on that album. And "DUB CYMRAEG" is a must for dub fans.
AmeriCymru interviewed Nial and Cass about the album and their past and future musical projects. Please read on below.
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Americymru: Hi Nial and Cass and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Please tell us more about your new album 'Oes i Oes'?
Nial – Thanks for asking us! Oes i Oes was originally going to be an album with a children’s focus – we were both inspired by the David Grisman and Jerry Garcia album “Not just for Kids” (I’m sure some readers will be familiar with this recording, and if not, I unreservedly recommend it!) This was the idea of a grown up album using material that was originally children’s. And that still might appeal to kids. So some of the songs are children’s songs or hwiangerddi – lullabies, nursery rhymes, and some other lyrics are semi nonsense and are from penillion, which is a traditional body of verses sung either to any tune that would fit, or used for Cerdd Dant. Some I remember singing at school. And though at pains to retain the traditional feel, we’ve sometimes been quite cavalier in our treatment, putting lyrics to different melodies and vice versa and even writing new music or lyrics if we thought it would be successful. It progressed from the original concept to some extent, but hopefully still retains a sense of the childlike.
Americymru: Care to tell us something about your musical backgrounds? What bands have you played in in the past?
Cass - I grew up in a family where singing and playing together was normal and learned tunes by ear as well as having classical violin, viola and piano lessons. Viola was my main instrument until I got a repetitive strain injury from playing it! Then I got interested in folk music at university and picked up the folk idiom on fiddle. I ended up researching Welsh folk music for a PhD and learned to play the crwth while I was at it, which is a medieval Welsh bowed instrument. First band I was in was a ceilidh band, then I joined Pigyn Clust in 1998 and Fernhill from 2000 to 2004. I released a solo album of crwth music (called 'Crwth') in 2004 and since then have mainly been playing with Nial.
Nial – Not many bands you’ll have heard of! Since the seventies I’ve played dance music – Ceilidh music and in pub sessions predominantly. Though I played in a punk band in art school I’d say I come more from the tradition than Cass does – I was taught fiddle by a traditional fiddler on Tyneside, dear J Forster Charlton, a real old boy from before the folk revival, and I played for years in his band, The Borderers. Musically I’ve always been interested in arranging, so I’ve usually had a hand in that aspect in the collaborations I’ve played in. Having played fiddle, mandolin, bass and guitar in various bands, I like to think I have an insider’s awareness of the possibilities.
Americymru: Is this your first musical collaboration? How did you come to be working together?
Nial – We’ve been playing together over a decade, and this is our second CD. Cass and I both moved into the area at around the same time. I was moving from Tyneside back to where I was brought up, and my parents lived locally. A friend of my mother’s told me about this girl who had moved in next door who played a strange instrument – crwth - in her garden. Then the girl turned up at my workshop with a problem with her fiddle and I realised who she was. I first started playing with Cass as a gun-for-hire accompanist, fairly infrequently because she was playing with Fernhill and Pigyn Clust at that time. But as we played more often, and as the material became more arranged, less extempore, we started to gig as a duo. At that time it was all instrumental, songs and singing came later.
Cass - Yes, singing is a bit more of a recent thing for me - other than in the bath, that is... I took a bit of persuading. Our duo was very convenient when I lived down the road and had very small children. I'd ring Nial to tell him the kids were down for a nap and he'd pop down for a couple of hours to practice. We had a lot of time to develop intricate arrangements, argue about chord progressions, rearrange the whole lot... that was the fun of it really. The records and gigs had to be done to justify the amount of time spent!
Americymru: Can you tell us more about the range of traditional instruments used on the album?
Nial – Well, strangely, the viola is only infrequently met in traditional music. When Cass first suggested it I needed no convincing as it’s used so effectively on one of my favourite albums of the eighties, “The Lasses Fashion” by the Scottish band Jocks Tamson’s Bairns. We used it very sparingly on “Deuawd”, our first album, too.
My guitar is steel strung, by the noted British luthier, Stefan Sobel, and is quite different in concept, constructionally and sonically from the Gibson and Martin models most luthiers follow. I notice his guitars turning up in the hands of top American players more and more frequently, most recently Darrell Scott. Where appropriate I try and play it with a hint of the harp in sound and lines.
Fiddle is THE most universal folk instrument, surely? Although the Welsh fiddle style is a broken tradition, it is thought that it was played in a lyrical and singing manner, with less decoration than, say, Irish fiddle playing. Cass often uses it as a second voice, and can sing while playing a different line. I’d need two heads to do that.
And finally, crwth is the instrument Cass is best known for. It’s a sound from another time, isn’t it? The medieval soundscape with drones and buzzes, not the clarity we seem to seek in instruments now. I think of its contribution as slabs of sound emerging with each bowstroke, the nearest any acoustic instrument comes to heavy metal guitar! But beautiful all the time in the way heavy guitar only rarely manages to be. Cass’s is a copy of a late 17 th C early 18 th C crwth in the National Library in Aberystwyth. It’s one of only a handful of surviving instruments.
Americymru: Cass...you recently edited an anthology of eighteenth century Welsh fiddle tunes, some of which appear on the album. Where can we find this book online and which tunes appeared?
Cass - Not that recently. 10 years ago now. It's called 'Alawon John Thomas' and is available from the National Library of Wales. www.llgc.org.uk and is an edition of a manuscript of tunes collected by a working fiddler called John Thomas in the mid-eighteenth century. There are over 500 tunes in the book which vary from dance tunes to song tunes to snatches of tunes by Handel - by no means all Welsh tunes. We used three tunes from the collection, 'Excuse Me', 'The Drummer' and 'The Key of the Cellar'.
Americymru: Nial....we learn from your website that you specialise in the making of 'Fine Crwths of single piece construction'. How long does it take you to make a crwth. How much could a first time buyer expect to pay for one of these superb instruments?
Nial - I trained as violinmaker back in the eighties, a proper apprenticeship, very rigorous. I became interested in crwths through contact with Cass – how could I not – and the violin background gave me the craft skills to be able to make, and make something which – hopefully - stands comparison with the highly developed violin aesthetic. They are made to sound as well as look good, though, of course. They’re a little quicker than violins - a few months - but the one piece construction (apart from the table), carved from one solid piece - does mean that as work progresses, there is all the time the worrying possibility that a slip could take out months of work! Price wise, I have to charge about two thirds of what a violin would cost, so starting at £4,000.00, $6140.00 with access to beautiful de luxe old wood extra on top of that.
Cass - Nial's crwths are the best of any I've ever seen, in look, sound and feel. Really beautiful.
Americymru: Why do you think that, historically, Welsh traditional music has been overshadowed in terms of its popularity by its Irish and Scottish counterparts?
Nial - That’s a really interesting question. I’m sure that Cass will have views on this. But…Certainly the late 18 th / early 19th century enthusiasm for Scottish country dance music and traditional melodies amongst the gentry was paralleled by Welsh music being played in the most fashionable circles in London, and enjoying the greatest praise for the beautiful quality of its melodies. But later in the 19 th century much damage was done to the tradition and a great deal was lost – when I say a great deal, I mean both music and the respect for traditional music. There were various factors at work here, but mention must be made of the enthusiastic takeup of Wesleyanism, and the doctrine that only hymns and religious music had legitimacy….bonfires of fiddles, the devils instrument, and hymns sung around the house instead of folk songs. By the time the eisteddfodau got going, much of the folk music of Wales was being forced into respectability and clinging to legitimacy only as a competitive art-music. And to a large extent that is the profile it has enjoyed on the world stage ever since. In comparison with, say, Irish traditional music, you have to remember that postwar, until the folk revival, playing Irish traditional music on a fiddle or whistle was deeply unfashionable, something sad old men did in a corner in a pub while youngsters shook their heads despairingly – but Irish music in the end prevailed, so, optimistically, maybe the Welsh revival is still to come. Certainly the media, broadcasting and the like do few favours for Welsh traditional music, and compare very unfavourably with what my VHF tuner receives over the water from Ireland ….both Radio na Gaeltacht and Clare FM play predominantly Irish traditional music for much of their output. Despite being a music station, Radio Cymru has only one program per week playing Welsh acoustic music, but only some of which is traditional, Radio Wales has the folk programme Celtic Heartbeat which, as the title suggests, does not play exclusively Welsh folk music. And it isn't even on the radar for television.
You then have a catch 22 situation whereby because there is no platform for Welsh traditional music, there is no exposure to it and the general populace are unaware of it, they do not demand it, and crucially, provide no market for it.
A broken circle.
So musicians in Wales either play what puts bread on the table – Radio Cymru’s rock output, much of which is unoriginal and derivative, but pays, or a select few play Welsh folk music for their own amusement in the corner of pubs. And good for them. Fewer still forge some sort of career out of it.
Outside Wales, folk enthusiasts are largely unaware of Welsh songs and tunes, and if pressed, might typify what they thought of as Welsh folk music as being “The Ash Grove” sung by a classically trained voice to sophisticated but unsympathetic harp accompaniment, a la the Eisteddfod. No matter how skilfully done, this sort of thing is not going to convert the unconverted…I’m not anti Eisteddfodau, by the way – I’ve attended and enjoyed many, from my kids school ones to the National Eisteddfod. They have great atmosphere and spectacle (especially the school one 
). Just that I think in the long term their contribution to the tradition and traditional music has not been a positive one.
Before closing though, I WILL emphasise the positive; exploring this overlooked area, overlooked for whatever reasons, means discovering neglected gems… and a heads up and respect for CLERA, the Society for the Traditional Instruments of Wales, who are doing as much as they can, with support for music and workshops. And as Cass says, let us not forget the progress of the last couple of decades.
Cass - I think Welsh music is definitely on the up at the moment in terms of public profile, thanks to CLERA, trac and a whole lot of bands that have been playing away largely unnnoticed for the last 40 years! I would say though, that the true measure of the health of a tradition is not how many bands and CDs are out there and how many people are aware of them. The true measure is how many people are actually playing and singing Welsh folk music for pleasure and passing them on to other people. That's the important thing and the child learning a song at school is as much a part of the tradition as the pub session or the band on stage. In fact, more so. There are certainly a lot more people playing Welsh music now than when I first got interested, nearly 20 years ago. It's always been an underground thing and I should think it always will be. I'm more concerned that it's passed on as community music within Wales than that people outside Wales know about it or that bands make a living.
Americymru: Any plans for live appearances?
Nial – Sadly no. This CD is sort of our swan-song, and it’s unlikely that we’ll be gigging it, or making another. Not from a Pink Floyd style acrimonious split – good e-copy though that would be! – but because Cass has some very good reasons, which I’m sure she’ll tell you about, and because for myself, I think that we’ve taken our collaboration as far as it’s going to progress. There’s also a distance problem now with rehearsal – we used to live only a couple of miles apart, now it would be a long car journey. And also, I kind of like the thought of going out on a high too. Think television comedy shows….by the time they’re on their eighth series, they are SO safe, formulaic, predictable…then you watch the rerun of the first series and realise how inspired and risky it was…once. Cease after the second series…it should be the law!
Cass - I''m taking a break from performing for the foreseeable future. I'm heading more in a spiritual than musical direction at the moment and putting my energies into church life. The reason I moved was that I felt called to the area we now live in, to support Christian youthwork and children's work. I'm in the process of working out where that call is going to lead me in the longer term! I think we've both moved on really.
Americymru: Where can people go to buy Oes i Oes online?
Nial – It’s a self produced and financed release, selling through Bandcamp, here Oes i Oes
Americymru: What's next for Cass Meurig and Nial Cain?
Nial - I’ll be playing fiddle for twmpaths ( Welsh ceilidh dances) with my band Aderyn Prin. I do so really enjoy playing for dancing. And the band’s pretty busy, which is good. Also I’ve been doing some gigs with my 15 year old son, Danny. He’s a great fiddle player. We’re “The Artists Formerly Known as Danny and His Dad”.
Cass - Musically, I'm writing hymns at the moment, metrical settings of Scripture to folk tunes. I'm also interested in storytelling, particularly Bible storytelling for children - I've trained in the Godly Play method which I like a lot. That takes up a fair bit of my time. I'm also appearing as a guest musician playing crwth and fiddle with Cerys Matthews in the opening night of WOMEX in Cardiff in October - but that's a way off! Not planning to do any other gigs at the moment.
Americymru: Any final message for our readers?
Nial – How about some musical recommendations? I don’t think Google and Amazon have Welsh folk music predictive advertising nailed as yet. So, here goes….People who liked Oes i Oes might also like Perllan , or anything else by the band Pigyn Clust, might like Cerdd Cegin’s recent release Medlar Pear , might like Dore by Bob Delyn, might like Fernhill’s Canu Rhydd , other Fernhill releases or anything else Ceri Rhys Mathews, Julie Murphy or the other Ferhill members are involved in. For a player wanting to learn some traditional Welsh music, Y Glerorfa’s Yn Fyw live recording is a great listen and has many excellent Welsh tunes, appealingly arranged and played. Readers might like our first album too – Deuawd .
Cass - And my solo album Crwth . Assuming your readers are listeners of taste and discernment? That's all. Enjoy!
Nial – Hwyl!
AmeriCymru: Hi Gafin and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. When did you first become interested in Welsh traditional music and in particular, the pibgorn? Gafin: I consider myself brought up on a mix of jazz and folk. My father was a great fan of Duke Ellington and Count Basie and I can still hear those solos in my head. There was something of a Welsh folk revival going on where I lived when I was a child with lots of Twmpath dawn, Ar Log and Plethyn concerts. I think this was the establishment of my roots. From age five I learned the piano and I also learned sax and clarinet. My parents wanted me to study music but I chose healthcare. It wasn't until I was at University that I started playing folk music and I bought my first set of bagpipes from Jonathan Shoreland. He made pibgyrn but when I saw the instrument which looked crude and simple to my eyes, I thought I would just make one myself. Which took me on a journey for some ten to fifteen years trying to work it out and making them in my attic at home and then a small workshop in the cellar! So having made pibgyrn from wood ( Patrick Rymes a great talented young musician from the band Calan plays one of my D chanters) I thought the pibgorn would be a great instrument to get people interested in Welsh folk or for sessions, so the obvious thing was to get it made in a way that I could easily distribute as my time was limited.
AmeriCymru: Can you describe the instrument for us?
Gafin: The pibgorn is a simple chanter with a cylindrical bore with a horn each end, one to blow into and one as an amplifier. It has a single beating reed i.e. one tongue rather than two as in a bagpipe. It can be blown with or without circular breath. Its a fun instrument and great for building up woodwind skills. It always turns a head wherever you go!
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little about the history of the instrument?
Gafin: It was first mentioned in Wales in the laws of Hywel Dda as one of the instruments played at the Royal Courts. This dates back to around 900 AD. The instrument is generally thought to have been played by shepherds and there are local accounts in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales of one being played by a shepherd in the last century. There were large pibgorn gatherings on Ynys Mon but I cant imagine they played in unison in those times!
AmeriCymru: How easy/difficult/impossible is it to learn to play the pibgorn?
Gafin: Like any instrument it takes time and patience to learn. Many are deceived by its simplicity but it is a woodwind and you need to blow into it correctly. I have heard some people speak of a woodwind embouchure starting with your diaphragm and ending at the lips. There are a lot of factors between these points before considering the reed.
The pibgorn plays open fingering lime a whistle, you can cover half notes or cross finger some.
AmeriCymru: Are there any online learning resources or demonstration videos that you would recommend?
Gafin: There is a growing youtube collection of pibgorn videos available. Its nice to see the fingering styles and sound of the instrument. There is a definite need for a good 'how to' manual. All my pibgyrn come with a brief 'how to' guide and there is a fingering chart available on my website.
AmeriCymru: Your pibgyrn are made of plastic. Care to tell us a little about the design and manufacturing process?
Gafin: The design process was very complicated and really makes you appreciate how every little plastic gadget or part takes a huge amount of human effort to produce.
I converted working wood pibgorn dimensions into 3D CAD drawings and after various prototypes went for injection moulding. I still hand assemble and tune every reed. The reed body is printed in 3D. I am also able to 3D print bespoke horn colours. So you can have a brown chanter with green horns for example. I have made a pibgorn in the colours of the Welsh flag. I would like to auction this for funds for the Welsh youth movement the Urdd.
AmeriCymru: Where can readers go online to purchase one of your pibgyrn?
Gafin: My website www.pibgorn.co.uk has an online shop.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Gafin: I am really happy that there has been a great interest in this instrument in the US. I hope people start posting youtube videos of themselves playing it and also in writing new tunes. It would be great for pibgorn players in the US to write new music for the instrument.
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1.What prompted you to make the decision to study Celtic music, and why did you specialize in the Crwth?
"I have been aware of my predominately Celtic roots almost ever since I can remember. As a small child, I used to listen to my great-aunt, who was born in 1871, sing some of the old ballads. She and my maternal grandparents, with whom I spent many idyllic childhood summer days, had a lot of the old-country expressions in their speech, even though they were born and raised in the American Midwest. My grandfather Marshall, while not a practicing musician himself, was a lover of fiddle music and owned several shellac-disc recordings of the Irish fiddler Patrick Gaffney in performance. I still remember playing “Green Grow the Rushes, Oh!” over and over, on my grandparents' “wind-up” 1915 Victrola that I now own along with the collection of records, most of which have survived several moves.
My investigation of the crwth started in 1965-1966, during my senior year in high school (S.P. Waltrip, Houston), when my studies in English focused on British literature. I volunteered to find out what Dylan Thomas was speaking of in “Under Milk Wood” with his reference to the crwth and also to parchs (ministers). Already being a violinist, I was fascinated with what I learned about the crwth, gathered more than enough information to mightily tax the patience of the classmates to whom I subsequently discoursed, but personally was left with far more questions than answers. Even from that quick, cursory investigation, I became aware of the many conflicting views about the crwth’s origin, its development, its function, and its place within the large and diverse chordophone, or string, family. Demands of college kept all the questions largely on the back burner for the next four years, except in the case of a research project that I did in my senior year, in connection with which the crwth came up again as a tangential issue. Unable to get it out of my mind and, frankly, being more than a little irritated over being unable to answer a lot of nagging questions to my own satisfaction, I took up the matter in earnest the following year in graduate school at the University of North Texas (1970-’71), as a semester project in my first musicological research seminar. The result was what even then I felt to be a less than satisfactory, seventy-page study that presented the often diametrically opposed views of earlier investigators such as John Hawkins, Anthony Baines, Kathleen Schlesinger, Hortense Panum, Karl Geiringer, Arnold Dolmetsch, and others. While my professor commended me heartily, I was still far from satisfied, so I deliberately spent an extra year and summer on my master’s degree in order to bring closure to something that had been bedeviling me for years. My research took me far beyond the University of North Texas Music Library and other American repositories to the British Museum, the National Library of Wales, Durham Cathedral Library, the library of Trinity College in Dublin, the Welsh Folk Museum in Sain Ffagan, numerous sites where important icons exist such as Worcester Cathedral and St. Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury, and the homes of a number of live informants across the water. The final product was a thesis that, even with substantial cuts, reached dissertation proportions before wrap-up and nearly drove me mad but, at the same time, was a pleasure to prepare. For a number of years after its presentation in 1973, I maintained a running, annually updated volume of addenda that took into account studies that came out after the completion of my thesis, until doctoral study and both teaching and research fellowships forced me, after more than a decade, to lay the matter aside. I still perform from time to time on the crwth, and I still occasionally run across something new in the way of valuable information, such as iconographic evidence. I have no illusions (or delusions) of having answered all questions once and for all, so it’s something to which I plan to return after retirement from teaching, probably sometime within the next couple of years."
2. How widespread was knowledge of the crwth when you began your studies? How difficult was it to obtain information/source materials?
"There was a fairly large amount of superficial knowledge, along with a huge volume of often contradictory theory about both the crwth’s origin and its place in the string family, particularly with regard to its relationship to the violin and its kin. Source materials were rather plentiful, but many of them were both brief and dated, even in 1966. Further, most of them treated the crwth as a side issue, relegating it to the category of curious anachronisms among string instruments. It wasn’t until I located the Meredydd Morris monograph, in the Welsh Folk Museum, that I found a whole book-length document on the subject; and even it, while of enormous value in terms of the place of the crwth in Welsh folk culture, was of limited usefulness in terms of technical matters. My reconstructions of both the genealogy of the crwth and the playing techniques were dependent on an understanding of the entire string family in general and fiddles and fiddling in particular.
As one who was still something of a novice investigator, I had to learn quickly how to pull the necessary strings to obtain access to materials that were in closed-stack holdings, which most of the British repositories were. Fortunately, my major professor had anticipated that and prepared for me a letter of introduction that helped greatly everywhere except the British Museum, where one stickler of a bureaucrat informed me that they did not accept recommendations from American professors, and that I needed to get a recommendation from, perhaps, Thurston Dart at King’s College, London. When I told him that such was quite impossible in light of Professor Dart’s rather recent demise (eliciting a giggle from a pretty girl behind the desk who did not care for the bureaucrat and later told me that she was so glad that he’d been caught in an error), I was told to go to the American Embassy. I later learned that such shenanigans were not official museum policy, but merely reflective of one small individual’s prejudice. At any rate, armed with my letter from the American Embassy, I ultimately gained entrance to not only the reading room but also the special manuscripts room of the British Museum, where ink pens are verboten and even turning a page with a pencil in one’s hand is a cardinal sin.
The Welsh Folk Museum was wonderfully accommodating, not only furnishing sources that I requested but also assigning two staff members to assist me during the several days that I was working there. Assistance with translating the archaic colloquial Welsh in a number of documents was of enormous help, and my assistants even tracked down some material that I had previously known nothing about, including the Morris monograph. In addition, I was allowed to examine, photograph, and measure each of the original instruments and reproductions in the museum’s holdings.
I would have hit an unyielding, insurmountable wall at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth had it not been for the assistance of a librarian who aided me with documents written not only in the characteristic backhand script of the fifteenth century but also in late medieval Welsh."
A Message From John Mouse
Hey there.
My friends and I have re-worked the Jonny Mathis Classic, 'When a Child is Born' but in true MOuse tradition we have given it a harsh twist.
The song is available as a free download via https://soundcloud.com/johnmouse/when-a-child-is-born
and the video to accompany it is made by the awesome Baltimore based This is 65! Films.
This song is a thank you to everyone who supported us, John MOuse, this year. We've had great support starting with the successful Kickstarter campaign which allowed us to release our album 'The Death of John MOuse' and single 'I Was a Goalkeeper' to critical acclaim and which received lots of Radio play via BBC Radio 6, 1, 2, and Wales.
Thank you.
John MOuse
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh singer-songwriter Meinir Gwilym about her music, future plans and her upcoming appearance in L.A. on St David's Day.
Meinir Gwilym
AmeriCymru: Hi Meinir and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. You were born and raised in Ynys Mon, Can you describe the island a little for our American readers. Did you come from a musical family?
Meinir: Ynys Mon is an island off the coast of North Wales. It has two bridges linking it to the mainland. I grew up in a village called Llangristiolus, which is in the parish of 'Paradwys'. It's quite a rural area, and I've always loved the outdoors. My roots are pretty deep there, my brothers and I are the 8th Generation to live in our family home. The house was originally a 'Ty Unnos' (One Night House) which is an old Welsh tradition - built in one night on a patch land, and if there was a fire in the hearth by the following morning, the builder then owned the house!
As a family, we've always sung really - at parties, at gatherings, at family meals - any occasion, in our house we're round the piano or guitar singing! It's just a natural thing in our family, and I think that's why music is my way of expressing myself. Both my grandfathers were musical in different ways - one was an exceptional pianist and the other a singer and lyricist, in their spare time of course. My aunt Cathrin, my mother's sister, has the best ear for music - she and I have spent hours sitting around the piano, her playing and me giving orders!
I learned to play the guitar at around 14, when I realised the piano was immovable...I was wanting to write songs, and that process has always been a pretty private one for me. My mother taught me to play on an old Spanish guitar, and I never looked back.
AmeriCymru: Your first recording Smcs, Coffi a Fodca Rhad (Cigarrettes, Coffee and Cheap Vodka) released in 2002 was a huge success.How would you describe the album?
Meinir: I was 19 when the CD was released. It was pretty different to other Welsh music that was around at the time, which is probably why it felt so fresh. Musically it's a mix, from thoughtful and quiet to loud and crazy! But it's a taster in a way - of the hundred or so songs I'd written in my teenage years.
I hadn't really thought about what I'd do with all my songs, but was writing a lot, though I didn't perform any publicly until I got to University in Cardiff. There was a songwriter's competition, and my friends persuaded me to enter. I did in the end, and when I won after performing my own songs for the first time, I realised it was the only possible thing to do. I recorded a demo tape and sent it to a community-based not-for-profit record label called Gwynfryn Cymunedol. They liked it, and from then on I was gigging like crazy, finding my feet, learning how to win the most difficult of audiences, and loving it. Smocs, Coffi was then released. I can't believe it's almost 12 years ago to be honest!
AmeriCymru: You have described your third album Sgandal Fain (skinny rumour) as an album of two halves the major and the minor. What did you mean by that?
Meinir: It's a literal description - the first 6 or 7 songs are pretty upbeat, and the second half is quieter, more thoughful. Because I don't write in a certain genre - I just let the songs do what they want - there's always a wide range of tempos and styles on my albums. On Sgandal, it felt right to split them in half.
AmeriCymru: Bryn Terfel appears on two tracks on your 2008 album 'Tombola'. Care to describe the experience of working with Bryn?
Meinir: Well, what can one say?! He's got the greatest voice, and is an absolute pro, working with him was a wonderful experience. To have his voice on Mam a'i Baban, a traditional song, was beautiful, but it was he who thought it might be nice if I wrote a song for both of us too. I wrote Mellt, and I think it works well.
He lives just a few miles down the road from me, and is a really down to earth person. He sells out Sydney Opera House, is probably the best Bass Baritone in the world, and yet he keeps his feet firmly on the ground. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him.
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about your upcoming appearance in L.A. ?
Meinir: It's going to be at a great venue the Cinefamily Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood, and is obviously the best occasion - Dt.David's Day!
I'll be singing solo, just me and the guitar, so it's going to be quite intimate. I'll be singing some of my favourite caneuon gwerin (folk songs), my own songs, and a few covers too - and I hope to get the audience humming along by the end!
AmeriCymru: You have a CD titled 'Celt' being released to coincide with your headline performance at the St David's Day concert. . When will this be available and where can it be purchased online?
Meinir: It's an 18 track album, released only in North America. There are my own songs on it of course, quite a few traditional tunes, and 2 English lanuguage tracks.
It's available from March 1st through - http://celtic-family-shoppe.myshopify.com/products/celt-by-meinir-gwilym
AmeriCymru: What's next for Meinir Gwilym? What are your plans for the coming year? Any new recordings in the pipeline?
Meinir: Well, I plan to release an album in Wales pretty soon, when the time is right. But next, I have a trip to Croatia planned, a tour in Galicia, Spain, and depending on how the CD goes down in the US and Canada - maybe a North American tour. I'm not really a planning kind of person, I write and sing, and leave the arranging to my manager!
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Meinir: Ooooh, to me 'message' is asking for something deep... I'll keep away from political...so I'm gonna quote my favourite bardd (poet), T.H Parry Williams -
"...am nad ydyw'n byw ar hyd y daith,
O gri ein geni hyd ein holaf gwyn,
Yn ddim ond crych dros dro neu gysgod craith
Ar lyfnder esmwyth y mudandod mwyn,
Ni wnawn, wrth ffoi am byth o'n ffwdan ffl,
Ond llithro i'r llonyddwch mawr yn l."
Fireworks In The USA September - November 2014
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh singer songwriter Sarah Louise Owen ( Sera ) about her new EP, 'Fireworks' and her plans for a US tour in September - November this year.
AmeriCymru: Hi Sera and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. When did you first become interested in Music? How did you develop as a singer/songwriter?
Sera: I have always loved music, since a little girl. I started piano lessons when I was about 8 and I was hooked! I loved the possibilities of it...a whole row of keys that all sounded different, and how you could make up something completely your own! I was an only child, so spent a lot of time in my own world, writing and playing music. I developed a love of writing and poems and somehow I got to the point of combining those words, with the melodies I would be writing on the piano and making songs.
AmeriCymru: You recently released an EP. Care to introduce it for our readers?
Sera: I self-released an album at the end of 2012 called Dream Catcher. That album got some airplay on BBC Radio Wales and in turn got me noticed by managers in Cardiff, and I have been working with them for nearly a year now. They have helped me make my career more focused and we re-released some of those album songs as an EP called SERA.
It was released in October last year and launched at the London Welsh Centre. Fireworks has probably been the most played song from the EP and there is a nice video on Youtube that I a really clever mix of live action and animation.
AmeriCymru: You have also released several successful Welsh language records via SAIN Records including Tir na Nog and the Creithiau EP . What can you tell us about these? Any plans for future Welsh language recordings?
Sera: I released Tir Na Nog with Sain in 2005, followed by the Creithiau EP which was a collabaration between myself, Martin Allcock and Canadian songwriter team Tia McGraff and Tommy Parham. I then stepped away from Sain in order to focus a little on my English language music. I then also recorded another Welsh album on my own label, called Ar Goll. I like being able to work bilingually, reaching different audiences and introducing the language to people and countries that know very little about Wales, and especially the language. I am currently working on a new Welsh language EP which will be a collection of co-writes and duets with other Welsh artists.
AmeriCymru: You have toured America in the past. Care to tell us a little about your experiences in the US? Any plans for future visits? .
Sera: I've been over twice now and loved it. Apparently over 70% of my download sales are from the US! So that tells me that people over there are liking what I do and it seems right that I come over and do a proper tour this year with the next album. And so, I have that planned for September-November this year. In the process of booking now, so if anyone has suggestions or can offer me gigs, radio sessions, anything like that, please get in touch! It all really helps. What I love about the US audience is their enthusiasm for music and how they embrace it. That sort of atmosphere is great for a singer-songwriter and I think brings out a better performance.
AmeriCymru: Where can people go online to buy 'Fireworks' and your other albums?
Sera: All my releases are available to download from iTunes or Amazon. You can also get physical copies from Amazon and my website.
AmeriCymru: What's next for Sera? Any new recordings in the works?
Sera: I'm working on a new album, currently haf way through recording it. I'm recording it in Cardiff, but I'm based in Caernarfon, so it's taking a bit longer to record due to distance and other commitments. But I aim to get t done in the next few months. As I mentioned before I also am working on the Welsh EP of co-writes too. Just very busy this year with music and events. All kinds of things happening - I'm writing a blog on my website so I can let people know what's going on.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Sera: We're getting close to Dydd Gwyl Dewi / St David's Day. Hope you all enjoy the day, in whichever was you celebrate it! I'll be doing two gigs. One in Bala on the Friday then down to Pembroke on the Saturday . Can't wait! I look forward to coming over to the US this year and hope to see some AmeriCymru members and readers at gigs and to hear my new material. Thanks for supporting Welsh artists! Would love to hear from anyone so do contact me on Facebook.com/serasongs or twitter.com/serasongs . .
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