Blodeugerdd / Anthology CD
‘Context is central to the notion of inherited or continuous culture. Over the last thirty or so years musicians who have been consciously dealing with the vernacular in music have been learning to present their music in the current public-funded or business-orientated climate of performance, recording albums and tailoring the music to the needs and demands of the broadcast media and the specialist music press. The additional burden of consciously representing ones national identity and stylistic category can also be stifling and lead to what one may call the ‘file-under’ syndrome.
There is an argument that this way of working is artistically unfulfilling and effectively disconnects the music of the folk from the folk.
Many musicians, known and unknown, are unheard as a consequence. This anthology is intended to be a gathering-place for these musicians and takes an alternative approach.
In making this blodeugerdd or anthology (the Welsh word 'flower-song' echoing the Greek, 'flower-gathering') the purpose is specifically to refresh the context in which the music of this part of the world is made in and listened to.
In practical terms this involved recording musicians in solo, duo or trio combinations, who may have worked together outside of the recording domain, but who had either never recorded before, or had never recorded in that particular combination. For instance, I invited Llio Rhydderch, triple harp and Tomos Williams, trumpet to record together. They had played music together but never recorded together. Ceri and Catrin Ashton of Conwy are two sisters who had never recorded together.
We get to eavesdrop on their conversations.
I also wanted to record musicians who were familiar to the general public, but perhaps whose original musical impulses may no longer be associated with the people we’ve come to recognise. These were Mary Hopkin and Max Boyce.
The artists were not obliged to conform to a blueprint of audience expectation but were encouraged to tell their own story of here and now. This led to a great diversity in the type of music recorded – utterly contemporary without resorting to cliché. New ideas and stories flowed and as the "us" and the "we" and the “here” and the “now” constantly change, so does the story.’
Ceri Rhys Matthews
The
Welsh Music Foundation is also lending its support to this project.
Smithsonian Folkways
Folkways Records & Service Co. was founded in 1948 in New York City by Moses Asch (1905-1986) and Marian Distler (1919-1964). Under Asch's enthusiastic and dedicated direction, Folkways sought to record and document the entire world of sound. Between 1948 and1987, Folkways' tiny staff released 2,168 albums. Topics included traditional, ethnic and contemporary music from around the world; poetry, spoken word and instructional recordings in numerous languages; and documentary recordings of individuals, communities, current events and natural sounds.
As one of the first record companies to offer albums of "world music", and as an early exponent of the singers and songwriters who formed the core of the American folk music revival (including such giants as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Lead Belly), Folkways grew to become one of the most influential record companies in the world.
Following Asch's death in 1987, the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington DC acquired Folkways Recordings to ensure that the sounds and genius of its artists would continue to be available to future generations. In the years since, Smithsonian Folkways has continued to expand on Asch's legacy, adding several other record labels to the collections and releasing over 300 new recordings that document and celebrate the sounds of the world around us.