Album: Llyn A Cwn
Artist: Twll Du
Label: Cold Spring
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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