The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Creiriau y Delyn Rawn (Various) 
  Relics of the Horsehair Harp
  (AMGEN) 


  
   review by John Eyles
  2025-03-03
Creiriau y Delyn Rawn (Various): Relics of the Horsehair Harp (AMGEN)

Since its first release, Telyn Rawn (Horsehair Harp in English) — a solo Rhodri Davies album on which he played eighteen pieces on horsehair harp, studio-recorded in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in January 2020, and released in July 2020 — Davies' own label AMGEM has steadily built a reputation; as a label, it is worth checking out whenever it releases an album, about twice a year on average. Of the label's first ten albums, eight were credited to Davies himself, good news as he remains as adventurous and versatile as ever.

Of the albums not credited to Davies, Dyslexic Harp is credited to French saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet whose artwork adorns the front of each AMGEN album, giving them a coherent house style. Although Davies played the piece on pedal harp, Guionnet was responsible for composing, recording, editing, mixing and mastering it. The second album not credited to Davies is Relics of the Horsehair Harp (Creiriau Delyn Rawn in Welsh) credited to various artists. As its title suggests it is a companion piece to the label's first album, Telyn Rawn; Davies selected some favourite musicians to respond to the eighteen improvised pieces on that album; each musician was asked to imagine that the music improvised in 2020 was ancient music which had existed in the medieval period...

There is not room to list all the musicians Davies recruited or their instruments; however, the names of a few give a taste of the album's quality and variety — Laura Cannel, recorders, Orphy Robinson, marimba, Ko Ishikawa, sho, Stevie Wishart, hurdy-gurdy, C Spenser Yeh, computer and mouse, Pat Thomas, electronics — suffice to say that the album's soundscapes are radically different to those of Telyn Rawn and that all the musicians were very creative and imaginative in following Davies' instructions. Listening to the two albums back-to-back, it is not difficult to hear the influence of the 2020 one on the 2024 one. In fact, the two complement one another so well that they deserve to be heard together. With that in mind, both are very highly recommended.







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Tomeka Reid Quartet (
w/ Roebke/
Halvorson/
Fujiwara):
Dance! Skip! Hop!
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Steve Beresford/
Pierpaolo Martino/
Mark Sanders:
Be S-Mart
(Confront)



Luke Stewart/
Aymeric Avice/
Chad Taylor:
Deep In The Earth
High In The Sky
(RogueArt)



Tomeka Reid Quartet (
w/ Roebke/
Halvorson/
Fujiwara):
Dance! Skip! Hop!
[VINYL]
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Cecil Taylor New Unit (
Tony Oxley/
Hari Sjostrom/
Okkyung Lee/
Jackson Krall):
Words & Music (
The Last Bandstand)
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jane in Ether (
Klein Mayas/
Voutchkova):
Oneiric
(Confront)



Joe McPhee/
Steve Swell/
Mark Tokar/
Klaus Kuge:
Spontaneous Convergence
(Not Two)



Unsub (
Fetusk/
Davis):
Xodiak
(Love Earth Music)



Remergency (
Hirsh/
Hollenberg/
Sewelson):
Wave Benders
(Squid Note Records)



Marty Ehrlich/
Julius Hemphill:
Circle the Heart
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher:
Away, I Was
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Joel Futterman:
Absorb
[DIGITAL RELEASE]
(Squid Note Records)



Joel Futterman:
Reflective
[DIGITAL RELEASE]
(Squid Note Records)



Rainer Jancis/
Elliott Sharp:
Uhhuu
(zOaR Records)



Memphis Metaphysics (
Moses/
Westgaard/
Oswald/
Edmaiston/
Cheli):
Memphis Metaphysics
(Sonic Transmissions Records)



Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner:
The Music of
Anthony Braxton
(Pi Recordings)



John Cage:
Chamber Works
1943-1951
(Another Timbre)



Fieldwork (
Iyer/
Lehman/
Sorey):
Thereupon
(Pi Recordings)



Angharad Davies/
Burkhard Beins:
Meshes Of The Evening
[VINYL]
(NI-VU-NI-CONNU)



Morton Feldman/
GBSR Duo w/ Taylor MacLennan:
Trios
[6 CD BOX SET]
(Another Timbre)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (15681)