Rhodri Davies – Telyn Rawn
AMGEN – 17 July 2020
A telyn rawn is a mediaeval Welsh harp, strung with horsehair, and largely unknown to contemporary audiences.
The first known reference to it was made in the Laws of Hywel Dda – the codification of traditional Welsh laws – in the 13th century. It would have been played by travelling minstrels and Welsh bards such as Robert ap Huw.
It is also an instrument almost forgotten, with one of the last references to it in Wales made around two hundred years ago.
Experimental harp player Rhodri Davies has, therefore, plucked this instrument from the annals of history – both literally and figuratively.
Davies researched the telyn rawn in early Welsh poetry and commissioned one to be built in 2016. It became a vessel through which Davies immersed himself in Welsh folklore, into a world largely forgotten.
The result is an album named after and solely played by the instrument, a medium through which a land of Welsh bardic poetry and horse cults is reimagined.
“I engaged with historical texts and poetry, learnt the techniques and music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript, and researched the importance of the horse and horse cults in Welsh culture,” he said.
His playing at points does actually gallop. On ‘Erddigan Gwawr’ his plucking gallops at pace, on ‘Ghorhoffedd Rhisiart’ it slows to a canter, and on ‘Maen Ceti’ it trots bouncefully, almost playfully.
On other tracks, his use of the bow creates screechier, eerie atmospheres that elicit the vast plains of mediaeval Britain – not far off the moods conjured by his previous collaborator Laura Cannell.
On ‘Rhybeth’ and ‘Waunceiliogau’, his bowplay goes into the depths of the instrument, drawing out all of its resonances. On ‘Y Gaseg Fedi’ he plays so tightly against the strings that you can hear the instrument’s innate woodiness, scraping against the mic.
While the album is completely improvised, it is typified by the almost meditative focus you associate with much of Davies’ discography and which connects with him many of the performers he has previously worked with. He counts Bill Orcutt, Jim O’Rourke and David Toop among his coterie of collaborators.
His focused improvisation has previously created sensations of the elements and on ‘Telyn Rawn’ it is wind and water that most clearly felt. ‘Ffarwel Ardoll’ in particular ripples.
And though the album is borne out of history, his playfulness with the instrument has modern and global influences too.
“All these interventions were a means to improvise historically informed music and re-evaluate the legacy of the harp in Wales but ultimately served as a jumping-off point so as to create new possibilities,” he said.
He’s right to say the album uses Welsh folklore as a starting point rather than a destination, and in so doing, he is able to go between different forms of harp playing.
On opening track ‘Penrhiw’ rippling layers emerge that could come from a western African kora, a European zither or a Chinese zheng. On ‘Cyrt Malle’ he plucks between each end of the instrument, interplaying between the top and bottom notes in an enticing, hypnotic dance.
‘Gorchan Sali’ is the standout track, in which his playing is most playful but focused, accelerating rippling plucks into a sprinting gallop.
It’s here that he truly maximizes the instrument’s potential, standing out as the most composed and developed track among the shorter motifs and atmospheres that comprise the rest of the album.
Order via Bandcamp: https://rhodridavies.bandcamp.com/
Photo Credit: Heiko Purnhagen