| 1. Ingenious, improvising Welsh harpist channels Arthur Russell, ancient Indian music, Welsh folk, Cajun blues x avant electronic noise on another full 'artmelt for his Amgen label |
| 2. Speaking every profound feeling.”) - the improvising force of nature adapts an Urquhart bray harp, contemporaneous to Huw Machno’s era, with alternative tunings in order to send its cascading melodies perpendicular to time and space, and resemble echoes of ancient Indian music, Welsh folk, Cajun blues and avant electronic noise in the process, on ‘Telyn Wrach ï od’ |
| 3. Davies’ unending sense of adventure and reading of classic Welsh poetry prompts him to confound and expand perceptions of the ancient harp, and its provenance spanning continents and epochs, on a dozen mesmerising improvisations characteristic of his inimitable fluency on variants of the instrument. Working within tuning systems that allow him to transition between semitones in a way unusual to Welsh folk, he nimbly regales abstract stories that speak to the harp’s long, winding journey, as much as his own, epic trek of the past 30 years, jamming with and absorbing the musical accents of collaborators including Davd Toop, Derek Bailey, and Evan Parker, and those whose music he has interpreted, and who’ve composed for him; Éliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Luc Ferrari |
| 4. Make no mistake; this is not some freak-out free shred. Davies collapses whole worlds of style into effortlessly articulated, extended melodies with an elegantly gripping flow that only snags the ear harder due to the buzz of his alternative tunings. We imagine that this stuff might have freaked out Welsh listeners centuries ago, akin to some medieval punk who returned from travels in the east, labelled a heretic. But attuned modern ears will delight in hearing the accreted histories of the harp mangled and parsed with the fiery emotion and poetic structure at the heart of Davies’ work |
| 5. Tracklist: |
| 6. 1.01 - - Agoriad y Cywair |
| 7. 1.02 - - Cildraeth Sienco |
| 8. 1.03 - - Hanner dyrned o'r wermod lwyd |
| 9. 1.04 - - Asswynaw Rhisiart |
| 10. 1.05 - - Ar lafar gynt |
| 11. 1.06 - - Un Dydd |
| 12. 1.07 - - Dygan Gwent |
| 13. 1.08 - - Pe cawn i Glasfedd |
| 14. 1.09 - - Yr Hen Dôn |
| 15. 1.10 - - Triban y Gwyddon |
| 16. 1.11 - - Gardd a Thŷ |
| 17. 1.12 - - Erddigan Dannau |
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