Largely recorded live at Real World studios, Welsh-language band 9Bach’s third album takes simple elements – Lisa Jên’s ethereal vocals, piano, bass and percussion, harp and hammer dulcimer – and weaves complex patterns. Opening track Llyn Du sets the pace with an organic, trip-hoppy feel, an atmosphere that lingers through the title track and Yr Olaf, before Ifan – weirdly, a musing on the true story of a boy raised by a pack of wild dogs in Moscow – alters the mood with vocal over solo piano and heavier, weirder interludes. Standout tracks are Si Hwi Hwi, a sort of lullaby with lovely voice harmonies sung by a slave mother to her young son, the eastern-influenced Cyfaddefa and the a cappella Heno, with its minor-to-major shifts. Deryn, apparently an apocalyptic song for a wounded world, sounds like a sunny outing on the sea, and the overdriven, understated guitar on closer Breuddwyd y Bard is a real treat.
It’s worth mentioning that the CD version of the album comes with an extra disc, Yn dy lais/In Your Voice, which has the likes of Rhys Ifans, Peter Gabriel and Maxine Peake reading their own or others’ English-language interpretations of the themes in the songs. They add to the experience, and it would be interesting to listen to the album with these readings interleaved with the music.
