Sain was founded in 1969 by Dafydd Iwan, Huw Jones and Brian Morgan Edwards, and the first record, ‘Dŵr’, by Huw Jones, was released on October 9th that year. Sain at first recorded at various studio locations, including the famous Rockfield Studio in Monmouth, but 1975 saw the opening of the first Sain studio – a converted cowshed on Gwernafalau Farm outside Llandwrog. In the early years a strong political theme ran through many of the songs on the Sain label and many of the artists and performers were closely allied to the Welsh language movement. The 80s saw a very significant milestone in Sain’s story, with the opening of the new 24 track studio on the present site between Llandwrog and Caernarfon. The label, by then, had ventured into all musical genres, from rock and pop to folk and classical.
2019 was a chance to celebrate 50 years of recording on the Sain label and with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the public were given a chance to join with us to work on the Sain 50 project – a project which explored the music archive through exhibitions,workshops and concerts.
