Davies / Rives / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Santos

Twrf Neus Ciglau

Label: Creative Sources Country: Portugal

"[...] The album title is Twrf Neus Ciglau. (no prizes for guessing which of the group came up with that little gem!) When run through an online translation programme the title translates from Welsh to read Noise Conquer Ciglau, which helps a little, but not much. Rhodri if you read this let me know? Anyway the music.... The disc contains a single thirty-four minute live recording made a year ago this Sunday at a festival in Lisbon.

The music actually follows a similar pattern to one or two other releases involving Rhodri Davies of late, not quite drone-based but certainly music involving layers of shifting sounds that slip and slide over each other, transparent in places, opaque in others and all very beautiful. A little like the recent Midhopestones release on Another Timbre there is a nice blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation here that is combined into one delicate mass of sound that travels along at a slow pace with little change in dynamic but plenty of diversity in colour The beauty comes then from the constantly changing textures and tones that are placed over one another, kind of the aural equivalent to a kaleidoscopic being turned very slowly.

This shouldn't suggest that the music is all pastel shades however. It isn't always easy to tell which sound is coming from where, but certainly Rives' sax can be heard sending out shrill blasts that set your teeth on edge, and the two Rodrigues scratch and scrape a gritty belly to the music throughout. Things never really break into any real to-and-fro interplay though, with the quintet happy to work their individual sounds over and through those of their colleagues rather than respond directly. So as a nice, detailed example of laminal improvised music Twrf Neus Ciglau works really well for me, containing some really beautiful moments. [...]"-Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear

"Perhaps close to what one would expect: scratchy, thin drones punctuated by the rubbing of friction-filled surfaces, much air and space. It is all that, but also injects a kind of mystery--maybe it's the deep tolling that occasionally rises from the cello or a bit more emotive summoning from Rives. So, familiar yes, but fine integration of sounds and well paced, with verdant hills and valleys as well as the odd cwm."-Brian Olewnick, Just Outside

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