In November last year, The Trials of Cato (Polly Bolton, Robin Jones and Tomos Williams) released their new album Gog Magog, described by Johnny Whalley in his album review as an album packed with genre-defying music that will surely be greeted with as much enthusiasm and praise as their debut.
Among the many standout tracks on the album was Aberdaron, an upbeat interpretation of Albert Cynan Evans-Jones’ Welsh poem, the video for which we have the pleasure of premiering below.
Aberdaron is The Trials of Cato’s tribute to one of the most ancient and sacred sites in their Celtic homeland of North Wales.
The song’s framework is built around the band’s ‘pilgrimage’ to this 12th century – and earlier – embarkation point for Bardsey Island, where legend has it that the Celtic wizard Merlin is reputedly buried. In the video, we wanted to pay tribute to the unique spiritual significance of this location to the Celtic peoples of Britain, echoed by the honeyed lights and shadows of the sacred, ancient stone of St. Hywyn’s Church, where the video was filmed.
‘This famous Welsh language poem about the remote and beautiful fishing village of Aberdaron has been one of my favourites since I was a child. The flow and transition of the words in these beautiful verses have always reminded me of the tranquility and rugged beauty that attracts thousands to visit this charming area of the Llyn peninsula in North Wales every year. It was a privilege for us to be able to film the track in the beautiful cliffside church of St Hywyn. This has always been a meeting place between spirituality and art, where the famous poet R.S. Thomas was minister from 1967-78. It felt like a real honour for us to be a part of that continued tradition with our own song.’ – Robin
‘We composed the melody for this song while the band was playing our first gigs in Beirut, Lebanon, back in 2016. The arrangement of the piece has developed quite a bit since those early days, with new elements being introduced as we have performed the song live over the past five years. ‘Aberdaron’ always comes out as a favourite in our live performances, not only in Wales but also in England, Scotland, Canada and America. I think it’s a song that transcends language barriers. Now, six years after the song was originally conceived, it appears in a new guise on our latest album ‘Gog Magog’. – Tomos
‘Being from Yorkshire, I’m not a fluent Welsh speaker, but 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 as an English speaker, I felt that the obvious musicality of the words transcended the language barrier and gave me a real sense of the ancient magic that this poem is meant to convey. I have to say I didn’t really get the untranslatable Welsh concept of ‘’hiraeth’ before now – a term which is often described to mean something between longing and nostalgia for a half-forgotten Celtic past – but the experience of filming this track on location in Aberdaron gave me a much better sense of the deep meaning of this term to the Celtic peoples of the British Isles.’ – Polly
The video was filmed by Matt Coles at St Hywyn’s Church, Aberdaron and features the band’s Robin Jones on lead vocals. The video received funding from Lŵp (S4C) and PYST’s Music Videos Fund.
You can find the English translation of the poem below.
Aberdaron
When I am old and honoured
With silver in my purse
All criticism over
All men singing my praise
I will purchase a lonely cottage
With nothing facing its door,
But the cliffs of Aberdaron
And the wild waves on the shore
For there I will discover
In the stormy wind and its cry
Echoes of the old rebellion
My soul knew in days gone by
And I will sing with the old passion
While gazing through the door
At the cliffs of Aberdaron
And the wild waves on the shore
This poem by SIr Albert (Cynan) Evans-Jones is carved into a pavement outside the National Trust Porth y Swnt centre in Aberdaron.
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