Friday, December 15, 2023 - 19:00
Tangled Parrot Swansea
222 High Street, Swansea
£10
Facebook Event:
Betwixt & Between Tape launch
Ceri Rhys Matthews / Rowan Coupland
The ninth installment in the Betwixt & Between Tapes series sees the pairing of Rowan Coupland and Eirini Fountedaki’s delicate chamber-folk with Ceri Rhys Matthews’ fluid solo wooden flute.
Ceri Rhys Matthews is a folk musician of sorts. He plays historical and newly created dance melodies and song airs from south and west Wales. Informed by a fine art training in painting as a young man, his work has gradually moved fromthe paint brush tothetrio ofwooden flute, pencil and footfall, all treated as means of drawing. By using a collective music from a specific geography as a framework for these tuneful drawings,Ceri tries to remove himself as a central ego working in social and historical isolation. He seeks to celebrate the fabric of the lives of ordinary people, living and dead, by repeating their anonymous art and using it as a springboard to do absolutely anything he fancies.
He plays the wooden concert flute, pibgorn & bagpipes, is a co-founder of the music group Fernhill, with whom he has recorded seven albums, and has produced other releasesfor the Welsh label Fflach's subsidiary fflach:tradd. He has also established instrument making and tune playing groupsin his village called Pibau Pencader, further developed in the town of Dolgellau as Prosiect Ioan Rhagfyr. This has fed into a social dance activity in villages around west and south Wales called Corelw, creating new dances and re-imagining others. Corelw’s activity includes the Gower Reel dance festival.Finally, he teaches at the Yscolan Weekendsat Tremarchog and Y Porth, Llandysul.
Ceri’s most recent album was 2021’s Y Gwythienne, an LP of flute music representing ten years of immersion in historical and generational playing. The album features a selection of dance tunes from the Swansea flute repertory from 1717 to the present day, played solo and recorded in a one-day session onto reel to reel tape.
A key figure in the renaissance of Welsh musical traditions -Songlines
A one man Welsh music industry–Folk Radio
Rowan Coupland
Rowan Coupland is a writer, singer and multi instrumentalist, playing ‘thoroughly beguiling neo folk’ (Time Out London) combining soaring vocals, and astonishingly intricate guitar and harp arrangements. He has released albums with Brighton ́s Willkommen, and Berlin ́s Pestizid Records, as well as self releasinga number of other albums and EPs since leaving England in 2010.
He has toured and played festivals across Europe and North America and has previously played in/with acclaimed groups such as Sons of Noel and Adrian, the Mary Hampton band, Emperor X, and shared stages with everyone from Mount Eerie, to the Books, Anna Calvi, This is the Kit, Diane Cluck, and Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab).He currently lives in Berlin,where he has been involved in the concert series Stille Kammer, and worked with artists suchas Ben Osborn and Leipzig's Malo Moray (with a collaborative double record released in September 2023).
His 2017album Circuit, a risograph-printed album/book collaboration with the artist Eva Dominelli, describes life in his adopted hometown, Berlin, filling it full of ghosts, flickering streetlamps, and icy-bright airfields.This was followed in 2021 by an EP of harp pieces, playfully written and improvised around a set of self-imposed restrictions: writing withoutthe letters a or o, or playing while allowedthe use of only one finger.
A very few records exist that one can describe as “magical”... songs that demand (and deserve) great attention - For Folk’s Sake
Folk, lonely and lo-fi, with a simple palette of instruments and captivating singing...a beautiful set of tracks - Discorder Magazine