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Sunday 16 June 2019

Twll Du - Llyn A Cwn


Album: Llyn A Cwn

Artist: Twll Du


Catalogue  no: CSR254CD



I can’t claim to have ever visited Snowdonia (in spite of having been born in Wales) but what I can say is that, having been brought up near the Preseli Mountains in south Wales, an equally eerie and desolate landscape even if not as spectacular, the seven snapshots in sound of lonely and isolated places invested with powers and atmospheres beyond words on Twll Du (Black Hole) ring absolutely true. Washes of texture, dark, rumbling and grainy, are about as close as you’re ever going to get to an accurate description of the genius loci of such locations.

Each of the tracks is named after a specific location within the general area of Cwm Idwal, and the tracks consist of field recordings made in and pinpointing those particular locations. The atmospherics here play on opposites, both the light and the dark: there are moments of deeply buried seismic disturbances balanced against airy whistling soaring through the heights. Here we journey into the subterranean darkness and then ascend into freezing, blindingly bright regions high above.

I have no hesitation in recommending this stark beauty of an album – best heard on headphones in a dark room whilst lying down on something extremely comfortable and with closed eyes. Magnificent.


Psymon Marshall, 2019.

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