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Tag: Gwrando

Pennod 57 – Tri Aderyn a Dau Fyd: Morgan Llwyd rhan 2

Three Birds and Two Worlds: Morgan Llwyd rhan 2 Seeing as Richard Wyn Jones joined the Morgan Llwyd fan club in the last episode, here’s an opportunity to discuss the masterpiece of that mystic of an author, ‘The Book of the Three Birds’. We explain first of all that that is not the book’s real […]

Gŵyl Fel ‘na Mai 2025

A dyma chi…Leinyp 2025! Gŵyl Fel ‘na Mai 2025 – 03/05/2025 Tocynnau ar werth yma | Tickets here

Pennod 55 – Barddoniaeth y Brenhinwyr

In this episode we look at a selection of poems composed by royalists during the ‘civil wars’ of the seventeenth century. We see that poets adapted old methods and themes in order to treat current developments which were shaking their world. Interestingly enough, It’s possible to suggest that political and religious conservatism generated incredibly energetic […]

CWYR Issue 1 DE-VICES

Introducing CWYR issue 1: DE-VICES featuring work from nine queer artists, this issue endeavours to provide a tentative exploration into the way queer folx interact with, utilise, and resist digital technologies.

CWYR ISSUE 2 LAUNCH FULFILMENT

Get your diary out because we’re launching the second issue of CWYR on Friday 13th of December! Join us from 6:30 pm at Rare Mags to enjoy our latest edition, fresh off the (small) press.  

Martin Jones

3.00pm Rhagfyr / December 29th Dydd Sul / Sunday Mynediad am ddim / Free entry 18+

Episode 54 – ‘The earth shook: an introduction to the Welsh literature of the ‘Civil Wars’

Episode 54 – ‘The earth shook: an introduction to the Welsh literature of the ‘Civil Wars’

There is a great amount of Welsh-language literature surviving which is related to the ‘Civil Wars’ between Parliament and King Charles I.

We note in this episode that the most famous Welsh author of the period, Morgan Llwyd, was a Puritan who supported the Senate, and we quote from a poem by him which describes the warfare as an earthquake shaking his world. However, most seventeenth-century Welsh people supported the king, and we discuss how one Welsh poet suffered because of his political and religious loyalties. And although there are many texts which testify to the connections between Welsh people and the conflict and violence, we also look at one example which reminds us that it is not lightly that one takes literature as a reliable historical source.

Interview with… GAFF

Interview with… GAFF …recorded November 2024

In this interview with Gareth Bryer, GAFF (aka Alun Gaffey) discusses his album ‘Escapism’, the background, the recording process, the themes.

‘Escapism’ comes out December 6 on Recordiau Côsh Records.

Presenter: Gareth Bryer
Camera: Lois Jones

Adwaith – Miliwn

‘Miliwn’ is the third single taken from Adwaith’s album ‘Solas’

‘Miliwn’ ydy’r drydedd sengl wedi ei gymryd o album Adwaith ‘Solas’

‘Solas’ – Is released on 7/02/25

Music video shot & edited by Rhys Grail

Fideo wedi’i ffilmio a’i olygu gan Rhys Grail

The Gentle Good – Tachwedd

Written in an off-grid cottage during a year-long residency in the Cambrian Mountains, The Gentle Good’s new album ‘Elan’ is a psychedelic portrait of the Elan Valley in Powys, Wales. Featuring songs in both Welsh and English, ‘Elan’ explores the landscape, history and politics of this remote valley, which was flooded to provide water for Birmingham at the end of the Victorian era. The first single from the album, ‘Tachwedd’ (Welsh for November) is an upbeat psychedelic celebration of autumn and a reminder to hold onto the light through the coming dark

EXCLUSIVE : GAFF ‘Chefchaouen’ video premiere

We may be heading toward end-of-year list time, but quality albums are still drifting down on us like autumn leaves. The forthcoming Escapism from GAFF, multi-instrumentalist and former guitarist in Race Horses Alan Gaffey, is a case in point. Tomorrow, second single ‘Chefchaouen’ the follow up to ‘If You Know, You Know’ is shared, and […]

Winter Reads

Looking for Christmas gifts?

Winter Reads, a taste of the brilliant books from Wales available over the coming months, is out now!
Pick up your free copy from your local bookshop, or browse the catalogue here!

GAFF – Chefchaouen

From the album ‘Escapism’ – out Dec 6 on Recordiau Côsh Records.

Music by GAFF.

Video by Nic Finch.

Pennod 53 – Pechod yn Llanymddyfri: Y Ficer Prichard

Sin in Llandovery: The Vicar Prichard

In this episode we discuss the way Rhys Prichard (c.1579-1644), vicar of Llandovery, used simple free-metre poetry to spread religious lessons.

In addition to considering his general agenda, we look in detail at one poem which shows that he was very worried by the sinful life he saw in his own parish, and which depicts Llandovery as a kind of Sodom a Gomorrah. It was only after his death that his work was published as a collection under the title Cannwyll y Cymry [‘the Candle of the Welsh’]. The work would be reprinted repeatedly, ensuring that ‘the Vicar Prichard’ was among the most popular Welsh poets of the period before 1800. However, in our opinion the most interesting thing about this poet is way in which Rhys Prichard was made part of the Welsh Puritan lineage; looking anew at evidence about his life and his own beliefs, we conclude that he was actually diametrically opposed to the Puritans who fought against the king. We thus have here a striking example of literature taken out of its original political and religious context and used for completely different ends.

Haunting stories for long winter nights

In these haunting tales, nothing is as it seems. A tormented voice calls from the barred windows of an empty room. A dusty museum exhibit possesses sinister powers. A glass of blackberry wine links the living with the sins of the dead.

Between 1965 and 1975, Elizabeth Walter published five collections of supernatural stories. But whilst the names of her contemporaries such as Robert Aickman are now widely recognised, Walter is relatively unknown to modern readers. Mixing folklore, history, and ancient traditions, these gothic stories draw on Walter’s Welsh heritage and the rich inspiration of South Wales and the border country.

Including the mysterious ritual of ‘The Sin-Eater’, the folk horror of ‘Dead Woman’ and the poignant ‘Come and Get Me’, Let a Sleeping Witch Lie is the perfect way to rediscover Elizabeth Walter’s chillingly remarkable talent.

Order Let a Sleeping Witch Lie online https://www.serenbooks.com/book/let-a-sleeping-witch-lie/ or in bookshops now

Children’s Book Cover of the Year 2024

To celebrate and recognise the contribution of illustrators and designers in bringing stories to life, our Young People’s Panel have selected 8 book covers from Wales that they believe deserve the title Children’s Book Cover of the Year 2024.

The designer/illustrator of the winning cover in each category will win or share a cash prize of £500.

Talulah – Galaru

Alawon jazzy, breuddwydiol a chymysgu iaith a genre yw’r elfennau nodweddiadol i’w disgrifio yng ngwaith yr artist unigryw, Talulah. Nhw oedd enillydd haeddiannol gwobr Triskel yn seremoni Welsh Music Prize yn 2023, gan fynd o nerth i nerth ers hynny a rhyddhau eu EP cyntaf yn ddiweddar.

Dyma fideo cerddorol i gyd-fynd â’r trac ‘Galaru’ o’r EP – ‘Solas’ sy’n edrych ar bŵer mewn pherthynas, a hunaniaeth.

Speak Back

This opportunity welcomes applications from under-represented Wales-based poets and spoken word artists to attend a free-of-charge course to further develop their craft. The week will explore themes of identity, climate emergency, climate justice and social justice. The tutors are Taylor Edmonds and Kandace Siobhan Walker.

Course Dates: Monday 3 – Friday 7 March 2025.

Closing date: 5.00pm, Tuesday 26 November 2024.

How to apply – https://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/speak-back/speak-back-how-to-apply/

FAQs – https://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/speak-back/speak-back-faqs/

SHLUG + Bad Shout + Lacross Club + MORN Tickets

Saturday 14 December 2024
Doors Open: 19:30
Starts: 20:00

Tickets 

SHLUG // BAD SHOUT // LACROSS CLUB

“An industrial meat grinder lugging noise between the teeth of gears.”

December marks the overdue return of SHLUG to CWRW – better still, they’ll have Bad Shout and Lacross Club in tow.

The death-coaster that is SHLUG is the unmusical bone saw of mechanical dissonances and distortions with a dubious and violent soundscape prepared to make your eardrums shatter and bleed. The noisy cutthroat non-barbershop quartet create an industrial atmosphere that will evoke primal instincts to its captivated audience, turning CWRW into a pit of rabid dogs. After the success of The Scent of Roy Keane and Self-Hate Portrait came BF/FM and Baby Teef, then debut EP Split The Grin. Don’t trust us, listen to these clever folk:

CLASH Magazine – Tom Morgan

“The abrasive and downright-feral SHLUG are, on the surface, not the band you’d expect to serve as the city’s de facto scene leaders. Think of them as the reprobate older brothers who bought you booze when you were underage. Their noise-rock/post–punk brew is best consumed live. Transgressive and primal fun from a band that have become a totem of Cardiff’s music scene.”

Buzz Magazine – Emma Way

“An ensemble who could have stepped out of the 1980s LA punk scene, in their weight SHLUG bring endless, side-splitting, noisy immediacy; on a floor-level stage like this one, it’s concentrated like a bubble about to explode at any given minute.”

BBC Radio Wales – Adam Walton

“They’re concentrating on noise, the refining noise. They’re making noise even darker and fuzzier than it’s been before. Sharp, blistering and everything I love about noisy music.”

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Bad Shout are exponents of raw, howling pync Cymraeg! Think The Damned meets early Husker Du with flecks of Oi and 60s garage…frenzied old-school punk rock!

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Lacross Club play loud, fast, catchy punk music that will make you break everything.

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Pennod 52 – ‘Cyfaill ac Anwylddyn’: Beibl Bach 1630

‘Friend and Dear Person’: The Little Bible of 1630

In order to understand to development of Welsh literature in the seventeenth century, we have to discuss the Bible again. Following the publication of William Morgan’s Bible in 1588, a revised version was published in 1620.

These were ‘pulpit bibles’, big books used in the church which were too expensive for most Welsh people to buy. But a very different one was published in 1630, the Beibl Bach or ‘Little Bible’, one which was quite a bit smaller in size and thus cheaper. While discussing its significance in this episode, we examine the Beibl Bach’s introduction, an extremely intersting piece of writing which urges the reader to let this bible live in the house with him ‘like a friend’ and ‘like a dear person.’ From the point of view of Welsh religious history, this was a milestone which would encourage Puritanism eventually. And from the point of view of Welsh literary history, this publication would encourage literacy considerably.

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a’r Athro Richard Wyn Jones
Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin
Cerddoriaeth: ‘Might Have Done’ gan The Molenes

RHYDD – BETSAN

Côsh Records is delighted to announce that singer-songwriter, Betsan, is joining the label ahead of her new creative chapter as an artist.

Out now on all streaming platforms, ‘Rhydd’ is the first in a series of singles that Betsan will release over the coming months. Here’s a special video, funded by Lŵp and PYST Music Video Fund, to accompany the track.

The Borzello Trust Poetry Prize

In our tenth year of the New Welsh Writing Awards we are delighted to open a new category supporting the development of poets living, working or from Wales with thanks to the generous support of The Borzello Trust.

This year competition ask the entrants to explore the theme of ‘Welsh Churchyards’ in one of their submitted poems. The other five poems entered shall be of any theme of their choosing, however as part of the winning prize included a development publishing contract we ask that entrants also submit a short proposal (200 words) on the themes that they’d wish to develop in a full poetry collection. Please read our call for entries here and for eligibility and full terms and conditions here.

There is a £10 fee for entries, however we have a number of supported entry places for low-income writers, earning £16,000 or less a year. If you wish to apply for one of these places please email newwelshreviewawards@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Submit your poetry to The Borzello Trust Prize for Poetry here. Entries open for the 2024 prize on the 1st of September 2024 and closes at midnight on the 31st of January 2025.

The Rheidol Prize: For Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting

The Rheidol Prize: For Prose with Welsh Theme or Setting has championed new voices and the development of writers for the past ten years with thanks to the generous support from R. S. Powell. We are delighted to continue the award this year calling for entries of new fiction and prose writing up to 5,000 words in length.

Open to new and established writers based in the UK, as well as writers from across the globe if they have been educated in Wales for a minimum of six months.

As part of the winning prize includes a development publishing contract with Parthian Books we also ask that entrants submit a brief book proposal (200 words) on the manuscript they’d wish to develop. Please note the form, genre and themes explored of your intended work.

Please read our call for entries here and for eligibility and full terms and conditions here.

There is a £15 fee for entries, however we have a number of supported entry places for low-income writers, earning £16,000 or less a year. If you wish to apply for one of these places please email newwelshreviewawards@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Submit your prose to the Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting. Entries close at midnight on the 31st of January 2025

Baudelaire + FUBELT + Marionette Tickets

Baudelaire are a six-piece post-punk band from Birmingham. Through noisy, goth-tinged soundscapes, they write songs about the darker side of the human condition. Their previous singles have received airplay from BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 6 and they’ve supported artists including Frank Turner, Heartworms, Crows and Egyptian Blue. They’ve headlined sold out shows in Birmingham and Paris.

Baudelaire’s next single drops on October 4th. ‘No Future’ is an upbeat track that pits dour lyrics against a flurry of dance beats, driving basslines and swirling synths. FFO: IDLES, Nine Inch Nails, The Murder Capital, Protomartyr, Gilla Band and DITZ.

FUBELT channel a sonic urgency, encapsulated by their dual-guitar attack, angular grooves and cathartic live performances. Influenced by late-1970s post-punk bands as well as contemporary artists such as Shame, TV Priest and Protomartyr, FUBELT have created fierce and unrelenting sound embodying elements of post-punk, noise rock and shoegaze. Their songs brood over societal discord whilst exploring the sullen underbelly of the human condition. Through a philosophical perspective, their words are bound by the anxieties of modern society and contentious political upheaval.

Formed by Alex Harries (Vocals/Guitar), Emile Driscoll (Guitar), Sam West (Bass) and Sam Fairclough (Drums), the Cardiff four-piece have played to packed-out crowds whilst supporting established acts Other Half, Seneca and Penny Rich. FUBELT are establishing themselves as a live staple on the post-punk scene as they prepare to debut new music in the coming months.

Returning to CWRW in support of Baudelaire, brand new South Wales outfit Marionette recently announced their ace new debut single ‘Your Hand’, out 27th September. Mixed and mastered by Charlie Francis this track has been a favourite in the band for a while and will be loved by fans of 60ft Dolls, The Strokes or Mini Mansions!

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

Alberta Cross + Corntown Orchestra +Laila Woodward

Alberta Cross will be joining us at CWRW as part of ‘The Thief and The Heartbreaker’ Re-imagined solo tour.

Alberta Cross were formed by Swedish-born lead singer and guitarist Petter Ericson Stakee and his London pal Terry Wolfers in the mid-00s. Their anthemic Americana-tinged songs possess a vulnerability and earthiness, and it soon showed in how hugely their debut record ‘The Thief & The Heartbreaker’ began to connect with fans.

2024 will see a reworked re-release of this album featuring of wealth of musical collaborations including Katie Melua, Jack Savoretti and Band of Skulls.

This solo tour will celebrate the album and the man that helped bring it to life, Petter Ericson Stakee.

Support comes from Casper James and the Corntown Orchestra, plus rising Swansea-based singer songwriter Margo Thirlwell.

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard + Jack Jones + Papa Jupe’s

Fresh from the release of their new album Skinwalker on Communion Records, we’re delighted to announce the CWRW debut of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard.

Skinwalker follows the Welsh Music Prize-nominated debut Backhand Deals and was written and recorded at frontman and producer Tom Rees’s Rat Trap studio, the room where Rees has previously recorded and produced tracks for emerging talent – Panic Shack, Do Nothing and The Bug Club. The material – as previewed on Therapy and their earlier single Chew – showcases a heavier and more disquieting sound than anything the band have released to date.

This darker sound and aesthetic take inspiration from found-footage horror and the Navajo concept of the Skinwalker – a legendary malevolent shapeshifter – from which the album takes its name. Thematically, each track on the record is designed to take you through descending floors of Rees’s mind each becoming more horrific than the last with the Skinwalker at the final floor, representing his inner fears, self-sabotage, hatred, and self-doubt. It’s a deeply intimate record of self-analysis and personal growth told through heavy fuzz-drenched guitars, a crushing rhythm section and fevered vocals.

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard have appeared at Glastonbury, Eurosonic, Latitude, All Points East, SXSW and Green Man. They’ve made of end-of-year lists with NME, DIY and Dork, and earned plaudits from the likes of The Guardian, The Telegraph, MOJO, Uncut, Record Collector, The Needle Drop, The Independent, CLASH, The Line Of Best Fit and So Young, amassing radio support from BBC Radio 1, NPR and Radio X.

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Jack Jones joins us at the very start of his UK solo tour. Jack has enjoyed Top 10 success with Trampolene on the Independent Album Charts with three Top 10 Albums, hit the road as special guest to Liam Gallagher, supported The Libertines and had the honour of being the first act to headline Swansea Arena.

South Wales daydream believer Jack Jones is a compulsive wordsmith and obsessive jotter-down of phrases. Across three studio albums over the past decade, his work with Trampolene has always drawn from this humungous, ever-accumulating verbal resource. He has also published a novel (2023’s ‘Swansea to Hornsey’) and recited poems and delivered spoken-word onstage.

For his solo album, Jack has put away his guitar and embraced a fresh and highly contemporary sound in which to couch his hard-hitting state of the nation poems of existential fear and loathing. His lyrics tackle many of today’s burning issues: mental health, drug addiction, mortality and the tortuous demands of technology. There’s also joy and hope in there.

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With post-punk, surf, disco and gospel influences, Papa Jupe’s T.C.’s sleazy and theatrical live performances lampoon masculinity, politics and power. The Cardiff 7-piece are an emerging force in the vibrant Welsh music scene. As well as being shortlisted for the Green Man Rising competition, the band has also supported indie front-runners English Teacher on their UK headline tour and played a string of sold-out headline gigs.

Papa Jupe’s T.C. invite you to join the cult of Papa Jupe. Redemption comes to those who wait. Join the Taurus.

Pennod 51 – ‘Hoff Rediad ei Phriodi’: Cyngor Mam a Galar Gŵr

‘The Beloved Path of Being Married to Her’:A Mother’s Counsel and a Husband’s Grief

After First noting that there is a great amoung of Welsh strict-metre poetry from the period and naming some of the important bards whom we don’t have time to discuss, we concentrate on two poems from early in the seventeenth century which offer insight into the life of one family of uchelwyr – Dafydd Llwyd and his wife Catrin Owen from yr Henblas, Llangristiolus, Anglesey.

We look First at a cywydd composed by Dafydd when Catrin died in 1602, a poem which expresses the husband’s grief in a personol and memorable manner. Then we discuss a series of englynion which Catrin had composed when their son, Siôn, went to study at Oxford. This poem presents the mother’s counsel to her son, and the nature of this counsel is amazingly similar to what one might expect parents to say to their children today!

Siôn was in the middle of his course of study in Oxford when his mother died, and so these two poems together offer an opportunity for us to see inside the life – and death – of this family and consider the way in which poetry offered them a medium for expressing their feelings.

Dwi Ar Gau – Lleucu Non (Official Video)

Official music video for ‘Dwi Ar Gau’ (I’m closed off). Combination of animation and film by Lleucu Non, including footage from Sion Roberts personal archive.

Funded by Lŵp x PYST Music Video Grant

Lleucu Non – Dwi Ar Gau

Quick on the heels of Cyn Cwsg, BERIAN and Ffion Campbell-Davies, Lleucu Non is the fourth artist to release via UNTRO, as her debut single, ‘Dwi Ar Gau’ (I’m Closed), is set to arrive next Friday 11th October.

Thematically, ‘Dwi Ar Gau’ is a track that captures the complexities and challenges that come with long distance relationships, as Lleucu samples lost conversations she found buried in her phone’s voicemail. Slipping between the raw and the dreamy, the track was produced by London-based producer and Welsh Language Album of the Year 2022 winner, Sywel Nyw, as his favoured subtle beats are planted beneath Lleucu’s infectious melodies. Both artists came together to record the track at London College of Contemporary Music as part of a longstanding collaboration between Klust and Youth Music.

Hailing from Dyffryn Nantlle but now calling Cardiff home, ‘Dwi Ar Gau’ draws on inspiration from the likes of Thallo, Mazzy Star and Cate le Bon as Lleucu crafts her own slice of dream pop. Lleucu explains: “I started writing songs around four years ago during lockdown so it’s really exciting to finally being able to release my first single!”

She adds: “Recording in London and collaborating with Sywel Nyw was a special experience and I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented producer. The track’s lyrics are open to interpretation, but to me, it conveys the angst many people feel after graduating, among other ideas! I’m looking forward to seeing how the single is received.”