“…it is always heading somewhere new, where fresh destinations continue to open more and more doors.”
Those words above are from Danny Neil talking about Welsh composer and multi-instrumentalist Cerys Hafana and her second album, Edyf, which was selected as one of The Guardian’s Top Ten Folk Albums of 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2023 Welsh Music Prize. He praised its uniqueness, saying that albums like this “…do not seem to follow any recognisable path or template, but aren’t these the records that endure the longest? Their layers of delight reveal themselves slowly with every listen; ‘Efyd’ does exactly that.”
With her latest single, The Wife of Usher’s Well, Cerys has lost none of that unique magic; if anything, her sonic horizon has broadened; as well as playing the guitar, the track appears to have more layers of depth and harmonies, projecting a more confident sound, as well as suggesting that we have a lot more to discover on her highly anticipated new project that she briefly mentions below. As I’ve said before, she remains an adept shapeshifter, entwining tradition with direct and personal interpretations to create progressive, profound and inspiring music.
Cerys is performing at the Other Voices Cardigan Festival this weekend, which will also be livestreamed via the Other Voices YouTube and on the big screen Mwldan in the heart of Cardigan (see the trailer at the end of this post).
Cerys On the song:
The Wife of Usher’s Well is a traditional ballad from the English-Scottish borders. The lyrics describe a wealthy woman who discovers that her three sons, who had been sent away from home, have died. One winter’s night, however, they return to her as ghosts and are forced to return to the gates of Paradise once the sun begins to rise.
This version was created originally for the Old Tunes Fresh Takes podcast (https://soundcloud.com/oldtunesfreshtakes), in which anyone was invited to contribute interpretations of a traditional song each month. Because it was during a lockdown, I had to self-produce and perform every element of the track, layering up as many instruments as I could find in my house (including acoustic guitar, percussion, violins and violas, field recordings and manipulated vocal tracks).
On the video:
The video was filmed by Amy Daniel at Ratgoed Quarry, a valley near where I live that was a booming slate mine a century ago but is now almost completely abandoned.
This particular house is opposite a ruined chapel where the artist Christina Dembinska has installed a beautiful stained glass window. I took some press photos at this chapel about a year ago, and it felt appropriate to return here for the first video of my next project.
The house we chose looks like it might once have been relatively grand and maybe could have been the home of the wealthy wife of the song.
I wanted the video to be simple and unchanging – for the abandoned, haunted atmosphere of both the place and the song to be at the forefront, but with small references to details in the lyrics of the song and to the people of this particular ruin who would have once called it home (the white sheet, the light of the fire…).
Cerys Hafana Live Dates
More dates for February and March 2024 will be announced very soon.
27/10/23 – Other Voices, ABERTEIFI / CARDIGAN
3/11/23 – The Met, BURY
23/11/23 – Divine Schism, Common Ground, OXFORD
24/11/23 – Kings Place (Hall 2), LONDON
30/11/23 – The Bank Vault, ABERYSTWYTH
7-9/12/23 – Trans Musicales, RENNES
2/02/24 – Trawsnewid: Transform, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, ABERYSTWYTH
15/02/24 – The Kitchen Garden Café, BIRMINGHAM
20/02/24 – The Boileroom, GUILDFORD
Tickets and more details can be found here: https://ceryshafana.com/live-dates/