Toby Hay is a guitarist and composer from near Rhayader in Mid Wales. He makes instrumental music inspired by the landscape, people, and history of the area. Following in the footsteps of the American Primitive guitarists like John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and the British Folk revivalists like John Renbourn and Bert Jansch, he composes music for the 6 and 12 string guitar.
Influenced by Indian Ragas, African Kora music and ancient Welsh harp music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript he makes music to capture the atmosphere of the special and under-represented part of Wales where he lives, adding to the long tradition of Welsh string music.
‘Birds EP’ is a collection of solo 12 string guitar pieces inspired by four different birds.
“I wanted to try and capture something of each animal in the music. Often the encounters I have with each are fleeting. The Red Kite and the Raven I see nearly every day, but the Curlew and Starlings come and go with the seasons.”
The EP also forms part of a collaborative exhibition, with artist Keith How, and Blacksmiths Nick Buchan and Tom Robinson of Gofannon Forge. The music will be exhibited alongside paintings and sculptures of each bird at Carad Gallery in Rhayader. The cover artwork was painted by Keith during a live performance of the music at a show in Bakewell.
Birds is released 21 November 2016 via Cambrian Records
Pre-Order it here: tobyhay.bandcamp.com/album/birds-ep
Live Dates
NOV 16 WED – Dempseys (with Duski & David Ian Roberts), Cardiff
NOV 19 SAT – Carad (with David Ian Roberts & Jim Ghedi), Rhayader
DEC 16 FRI – De Koffie Pot (with David Ian Roberts), Hereford
tobyhay.com
cambrianrecords.com