Today, the folk band ‘The Trials of Cato’ release a video for their latest single, ‘Aberdaron’, after they received funding from the Lŵp x PYST Music Video Fund.
‘The Trials of Cato’ are Tomos Williams, Robin Jones and Polly Bolton. The band was formed back in 2016 when they lived and worked in Beirut, Lebanon.
“The melody was composed while the band was still living and working in Beirut”, says Tomos, “The arrangement of the song has developed quite a bit since those early days, with new elements introduced as we performed the song live over the past five years. ‘Aberdaron’ always appears as a favourite in our live performances, not only in Wales, but in England, Scotland, Canada and America. Now, six years after the song was originally composed, it appears in a new guise on our new album ‘Gog Magog'”.
The video was filmed by Matt Coles at St Hywyn’s Church, Aberdaron and features the band’s Robin Jones on lead vocals. According to Robin, “Albert Evans-Jones’ famous poem about Aberdaron has been a favourite since I was a child. The flow and transition of the words in these beautiful verses have always reminded me of the beauty, peace and glamor that attracts thousands to visit the charming areas of Pen Llyn every year. It was a privilege for us to film the track in this inspiring location.”
The band sings in Welsh in English and according to Polly, who is not a fluent Welsh speaker, “Since I joined the band the boys have been helping me to learn more and more of this beautiful language. It was an honour to sing harmony on this track and although some of the finer poetic nuances were lost on me, I felt that the obvious musicality of the words transcended the language barrier and gave me a real sense of the magic that this poem is meant to convey. I have to say I didn’t really get the concept of ‘hiraeth’ before now, but the experience of recording this track and filming it in Aberdaron gave me a much better understanding of what it means.”
The video premiered yesterday on Folk Radio UK’s website but you can watch it on AM’s website now.