ALAW - Denwyd I’r Goleuni / Drawn To The Light
Taith Records TRCD00025
Alaw has a name for innovation and excellent performance that is first rate, and this recording, with a change in line-up, underlines and enhances their reputation.
recording, with a change in line-up, underlines and enhances their reputation.
The new member of the team is Nia Lyn, whose assured and mature voice turns to traditional Welsh songs or relaxed jazz-influenced numbers with equal ability and commitment; this is one very good singer. Oli Wilson-Dickson (fiddle/viola) remains at the musical heart of the band and has an enviable ability to swap instantaneously from slow and contemplative to the sharp, percussive, march style. Dylan Fowler provides the guitar, percussion and backing vocals, and welds the whole thing together.
Although a good proportion of the material comes (as with so much Welsh music) from the collections of 18th/19th century antiquarian Iolo Morganwg, there’s also contemporary music from Estonia and a beautiful trad Welsh sounding piece by Oli. Add to this a seam of Breton influence, and you have a varied and contrasting piece of work. Every note is performed with consummate skill, but without losing any of the emotion which is so important to the listener’s enjoyment. The mood switches with every track. For instance, track 8’s finely executed traditional tunes are followed by the spectacular fireworks of two new pieces, played at breakneck speed, but somehow with every note given the proper weight and timing.
Finally, the CD booklet is bilingual, and with song translations that preserve the colour and poetry of the Welsh originals for those of us lloegyrwys with little or no Welsh. Thoroughly recommended.
www.alaw-band.com
John Waltham
This review appeared in Issue 143 of The Living Tradition magazine