Rhodri Davies - Telyn Wrachïod '2024

Tracks list

Ingenious, improvising Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies channels Arthur Russell,
ancient Indian music, Welsh folk, Cajun blues x avant electronic noise on
another full 'artmelt for his Amgen label.

With the cywydd (a style of Welsh rhyming verse) of poet Huw Machno (fl
1585-1637) in mind - “Ceimion wrachïod cymwys / Yn siarad bob teimlad
twys” (trans. “Precise, angled brays / Speaking every profound
feeling.”) - the improvising force of nature Rhodri Davies 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’. 

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.

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.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Rhodri Davies - Agoriad y Cywair (3:56) 
1.02 - Rhodri Davies - Cildraeth Sienco (2:33) 
1.03 - Rhodri Davies - Hanner dyrned o'r wermod lwyd (3:42) 
1.04 - Rhodri Davies - Asswynaw Rhisiart (1:54) 
1.05 - Rhodri Davies - Ar lafar gynt (2:19) 
1.06 - Rhodri Davies - Un Dydd (2:17) 
1.07 - Rhodri Davies - Dygan Gwent (2:50) 
1.08 - Rhodri Davies - Pe cawn i Glasfedd (2:34) 
1.09 - Rhodri Davies - Yr Hen Dôn (3:27) 
1.10 - Rhodri Davies - Triban y Gwyddon (5:52) 
1.11 - Rhodri Davies - Gardd a ThÅ· (2:54) 
1.12 - Rhodri Davies - Erddigan Dannau (2:28)

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