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..Cynefin?

So what does ‘cynefin’ (pr.’kuh-neh-vin’) mean?

Who’s the bloke on the bridge with the guitar? What’s a sheep-walk? And where exactly is the Clettwr Valley anyway?

If you’ve arrived here with a few questions then that’s probably not very surprising. A musical project with a difference. ‘Dilyn Afon’ (or ‘Following A River’) is the result of three years research and work, collecting arranging and recording folk songs from Ceredigion.

This a project which aims to put West Wales and its fragile traditions firmly back on the musical map.

Listen..

Watch the video for the lead single from new album – ‘Y Fwyalchen Ddu Bigfelen’ (The Yellow Beaked Blackbird).

Sourced from the singing of Mrs. J Emlyn Jones near Llandysul and noted in the Welsh Folk Song Society journals, this melody is a variant of ‘Cân y Lleisoniaid’, which was at one point popular throughout South Wales.

This ‘llatai’ (love messenger) song features a conversation between a young lad and blackbird – however it is unusual since the ‘beloved’ in question is not a woman, but Wales itself. It is in essence a song of hiraeth (longing) by a boy who has moved to the city to find work and is longing for gentler contours his homeland, embodied in song by the mellifluous calls of the blackbird.

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