Cerys Matthews - Explorer

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

5...according to our Clinton on Fri 06 May, 2011.

Cerys Matthews was always sort of fanciable in the kind of way you might have a strange attraction to your best friends mum when you were 9 years old. She's looking...erm... lovingly worn on the cover of this new CD surrounded by a stuffed hare, an eagle and a divers helmet. I've always enjoyed her solo work, her songwriting often top notch and her voice is a beautiful thing indeed. This is a mixed bag of original tunes and traditional songs from around the world. The first three tracks are originals and very strong indeed, beautifully produced with a folk edge (but not overly fakily folk), there's a brief sojourn into flamenco before a hushed take on the traditional 'Wade in the Water' which features Serafina Steer on harp. 'Into the Derelict Night' is a wonderfully evocative song about the expulsion of the Acadians from their lands in the mid 1700's. Let's just say its a long way from 'Mulder and Scully'. My only worry (and there always has to be one) is that if this sounds so good on first listen will it only get worse on subsequent plays?

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

Cerys has been collecting songs since she was seven. On her Sunday morning BBC 6Music radio show she delves into her vast record collection to share her passion and despite what radio programmers would have us believe in the need for the familiar and over exposed, the response has been a rapidly ever increasing audience that welcomes the diversity of music that is often new to their ears.

“Explorer “ is the title of Cerys’ fourth solo album and in both choosing and writing the songs she has sub consciously delved into the huge influence of not just all the music she has heard, but the places she has been around the globe ,and by the times we live in, but most importantly made an album that over the seven days of recording had no pre determined sound or calculated format.

The journeys start with the songs, from Spain, Scotland, Ireland, America, and Wales and their own migration. “I didn’t want to explore so much what makes the songs different from each other, but what they have in common. How, when they are put side by side, they might find a simple common ground that exists despite the characteristics of their land of origin being so diverse.

Cerys goes on to describe the new songs she has written. “Everyday I sit with my guitar and play music, some of the songs I have collected in my early teens, some just discovered. I wrote the rest of this album inspired by the idea of transience, migration and travel, imagining how people felt on hearing new sounds when first docking in new colonies, the uniqueness of smelling , seeing and of course hearing such strange things for the first time."

“As I was about to go into the studio I started imagining sounds that might seem initially strange to the songs about to be recorded. Sounds that would in my mind compliment the message of the song, create a feeling that has the essence of where the songs have come from , but also sounds that added the exotic and the new.”

The band took shape in the form of Mason Neely long time collaborator , from Chattanooga , Attab Haddad , oud virtuoso and flamenco performer , Tigran Aleksanyan from Armenia on the Duduck , Frank Moon , of Cornwall’s fair fields, with his 100 year old banjo , and the very English sound of Serafina Steer on harp and backing vocals , Cerys leading from the guitar .

The self produced album is released on May 9th on CD and download on Cerys’s own label , through which she has already released her three previously successful solo albums (“Don’t Look Down “ , “Paid Edrych I lawr", and “TIR” ) .

As well as her weekly Sunday Morning BBC 6Musc radio show, Cerys goes out on tour on May 2nd, she will be standing in for Bob Harris on his Radio 2 show, is presenting a TV documentary in both Welsh and Spanish on Cuba, a mentor on the BBC 2 TV show “Goldie : By Royal Appointment : a BBC Radio 4 programme on fishing, a documentary on the legendary TJ’s nightclub, recently judged the Dylan Thomas Award for new literature, performing at the Hay Literary Festival, curating a night at Cardiff Glee Club to celebrate the club’s birthday (with Natalie Duncan , Lester Allen , Tara Busch , and Mary Epworth ) on May 1st, this year ‘s President of the Urdd National Eistedfodd on 30th May ), and has her first children’s book published on May 4th “Songs From The Deep“ on Gomer Press.

Cerys Matthews made 2010 her own on her BBC Radio 6 Sunday morning show which saw the ratings more then double. She also presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and 2 and was a judge at the Sony Reader Awards, awarding the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize.

Highlights of early 2011 will see Cerys presenting a television documentary exploring the history of Cuba and the current Saturday night BBC 2 television series “Goldie’s Band By Royal Appointment” discovering and mentoring brand new talent.

Cerys is also presenting a Radio 4 documentary on fishing and has just had her first children’s book published entitled “Tales From The Deep.”

TRACKLISTING:

1. How Can You Say So Little When You Talk So Much
2. Who Fears The Garden Fears Life
3. Fortress Sails
4. Sweet Magnolia
5. Galleon
6. Avalanche
7. Evangeline
8. Wade In The Water
9. Connemara Cradle Song
10 La Tarara
11 Ca’the Yowes
12 Harbwr Corc
13 Yr Eneth Gadd Ei Gwrthod
14. On and On
15.So Far