Artist: Bwganod
Title: Trwy ddrysau dychmygol
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Sokol Keep
Well for once I’m going to remain uninformed about the song titles – the album title means ‘Through Imaginary Doors’ though, as frankly the only decent translations of Welsh to English are via Welsh friends usually. Anyway this was an odd one, and a little difficult but it is so striking and different in approach here we are. The debut by Bwganod.
.No instruments, no sequencers, no mercy. Apparently conjured in to life by torturing to death a PlayStation1. But honest those first percussive sounds hit me so hard in the memory banks. I sat for a short while and slowy the mists cleared and I recalled what the eerie, sombre and curiously unsettling reminder was: Endvra. The Great God Pan to be exact. The same ominous percussive sound. It evokes a ritual place, an atmosphere that the minimal electronica here amplifies. And no I have no concept as to how these sounds were dragged from the electronic corpse….
‘Cwn Annwn’ I am aware of; spectral hounds of Welsh folklore and magic, otherworldly beasts of the wild hunt. And here their presence in still, patient and sinister, intelligent. The music feels like being stalked rather than hounded, mists obscuring the world, skeletal trees. A slow, inevitable stalking not the breakneck hounding… It feels oddly primitive but so effective. ‘Hwiangerdd y lleuad’ has a strangely almost but not quite out of tune piano sound, an almost childish rhythm and speed as though from a nursery and so yes I go to translate and I think it means ‘Lullaby Of The Moon’ which… would be quite remarkable as it is so perfect for that gentle, rock teh innocent soul to sleep with care and protection feel… Something ‘Niwl dros goedwig Nant y Benglog’ does not have. This feels gentle, certainly, even beautiful in its simplicity but there is no playfulness, but no malice either. It paints a picture that seems to me have a chill to the weather, a screen looked out upon through a window; initially grim but slowly the beauty emerges.
‘Cyrn rhyfel’ has the soft percussive beat once more but a repetitive, slow tune that brings to mind primitive horns, a steady step. One with no enthusiasm for the journey but a need to commit. A curious song indeed. The theme seems to be expanded upon in a manner but with chaotic chimes to the steady beat it is weird and actually somewhat disconcerting with an air of menace lurking somewhere between those chimes and the steady rhythm…
‘Brwydyr fawr Castell y Gwynt’ steps away from this. There is a more expansive feel to the main tune, not epic but evocative: Adventure, times past maybe. There is certainly a voice whispering of legend here for me, of deeds maybe or simply memories of ruins that once stood proud. Who knows. But is proves how effective the simple well chosen notes can be.
‘Dawns y gwyllion’ is…well…a hesitant umpah melody. Light, happy, a little unsteady as though the ale tent at the gathering has had its say. And yet slowly it asserts itself with a smile and an almost whimsical air, an unexpected moment of fun and smiles.
‘Coroni brenin Craig yr Eryr’ (yes I cut and pasted these titles…) may or may not be the reason for that little dance. This feels like a herald, a pomp and a circumstance, a stately procession that has a lovely, deep resonating melody that seems to swell the heart in your chest as though you witness some arrival that will become a proud memory.
‘Yng nghysgod angau’ closes this strange and unique ritual and by turn is no less powerful than the previous track but here the sense of importance is dark, deep and almost resigned as though we descend slowly to a tomb. There is no struggle to the music, simply acceptance that, surrounded by cold grey stone this is how it ends for us all.
I have no concept as to how this music was pulled and coaxed from the carcass of an obsolete games deck, but there again I’m more a flint and tinder goblin than a wizard of wires. But it is all at once simple in structure but incredibly evocative in nature. It is so easy to get into, so straight forward that surely some magic is at play. Sombre to playful, wistful to hauntingly epic Bwganod are a very different but very impressive entrant to the dungeons…
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 