Some music grabs you by the collar and shakes you, some music makes you want to shake your money-maker or groove thang, and then there is music of the kind Cerys Hafana makes which places an arm around your shoulder, tells you everything is going to be okay, and guides you to a place of exceptional beauty and intrigue. Hafana is one of those rare artists who you could believe is not from our dimension and their claims to be born in Manchester and raised in Machynlleth, North Wales, from the age of five is just a cover story for an other-worldly visitor sent to soothe savage times.
Their new album Angel is sublime and Hafana has a way of taking traditional folk as a starting point then weaving it into their own musical style; inspiration transmogrified into something equally ancient and modern. The beginning for this album came from Hafana researching songs and lyrics online at the National Library of Wales. The comparison to angels that often befalls harpists and singers with such wonderfully ethereal voices such as Hafana’s grates, so they had searched the database for the word ‘angel’ and found the story of “An old man who goes for a walk in the forest and hears an angel singing so beautifully it makes him fall asleep for three hundred and fifty years”.
It’s beguiling that despite the frenetic playing that the harp requires, the acoustic susseration it produces is so calming. Hafana plays a Welsh Triple harp and, whereas classical harps have foot pedals to change the pitch, it uses three parallel rows of strings to play the sharp and flats. This, Hafana says, can take some getting used to at first as you are constantly adjusting your focus to locate the right strings.
The combination of Cerys Hafana’s playing with their voice is what makes the music so very special. Their voice is delivered very cleanly and with little in the way of embellishment from effects, and only the merest hint of vibrato on the long notes. There is breath running through the vocals and this evokes wind blowing through the trees of the forest that inspired the album. Hafana started out on piano before learning harp from their mother’s Welsh teacher so on songs like ‘O’r Coed’ and ‘Atsain’ we get another dimension to this magical land that Hafana guides is through.
It is also remarkable that the band playing on Angel were only assembled for the recording. The players – Ursula Harrison on double bass, Amie Huckstep on alto saxophone and Lisa Martin on drums – have been exceptionally intuitive in their playing and there are moments which often draw on elements of jazz and the delicious repetition you get in the minimal music of Steve Reich. On ‘Carol Mynydogg’ the moments when Huckstep’s saxophone and Hafana’s voice dance around one and another is glorious and when the piano and long bowed bass drift in you can feel the sun sparkling through the trees. Hafana also credits producer Owain Fleetwood Jenkins for the quality of the recording captured ‘in the room’ at his StudiOwz, a converted Welsh chapel in Clarbeston.
We live in worrying times and while we need bands to shout and scream about injustice and provide a rallying cry to fight the rise of divisive politics, we also need moments when we can pause the anger and spend some time recharging our souls; to breathe in the bucolic smell of pine trees and petrichor. Cerys Hafana will guide you to those places and their playing and singing might allow you to glimpse something magical or mystical out of the corner of your eye.
Cerys Hafana: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Released through Glitterbeat Records.
On tour:
Thu 2 Oct – St George’s, Bristol
Fri 3 Oct – Music Room @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (A Celebration of Welsh Folk Music, with 9Bach, Cerys Hafana and VRi)
Sat 4 Oct – The Gate, Cardiff
Sun 5 Oct – All Saints’ Church, Langport
Wed 8 Oct – Band on the Wall, Manchester
Thu 9 Oct – Cobalt Studio, Newcastle
Fri 10 Oct – The Glad Cafe, Glasgow
Sat 11 Oct – Firth Hall, Sheffield
Sun 12 Oct – St Matthias Church, London
Thu 16 Oct – KCM Church, Falmouth
Fri 17 Oct – Barrelhouse, Totnes
Sat 18 Oct – Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon
Tue 21 Oct – Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
Fri 24 Oct – Tŷ Siamas, Dolgellau
Sat 25 Oct – Neuadd Ogwen, Bethesda
Some of the insights included in this review came from Cerys Hafana in conversation with Matthew Bannister in the always excellent Folk on Foot podcast where Cerys also plays tracks from the album in locations around Corris Uchaf. Definitely worth a listen if you are a fan.
If you love this album as much as I do then I would also encourage you also listen to the music of fellow harpist Andy Aquarius and the wonderful winterspring-summerfall album by Felbm.
Review by Paul F Cook
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