Dating back to the 13th century in Wales, the Telyn Rawn is a nearly forgotten horsehair harp; UK improvising harpist Rhodri Davies researched the instrument and its unique sound, commissioning the construction of a harp on which he performs 18 improvisations of impressive technique and sonority, launching his new Amgen Records label with this album named for the instrument.
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Rhodri Davies-horsehair harp
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Includes a 12-page booklet with text by Rhodri Davies in English and Welch, with images of the Telyn Rawn
Label: Amgen Records
Catalog ID: CD001
Squidco Product Code: 29399
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels w/ booklet
Recorded at Blank Studios, at Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on January 22nd, and 23rd, 2020, by Sam Grant.
"A Telyn Rawn is a harp strung with horse hair and predates the appearance of the triple, lever and pedal harps. The earliest reference to this early Welsh harp can be found in the Laws of Hywel Dda (13th century), the codification of traditional Welsh laws. This harp remains largely unknown to contemporary audiences. One of the last references to a Telyn Rawn made in Wales was around two hundred years ago.
In 2016 Davies researched the Telyn Rawn in early Welsh poetry and commissioned the building of a new harp. "All the music on this album is improvised. I designed and built a long forgotten instrument, experimented with wound and pleated horse hair strings, I engaged with historical texts and poetry, learnt the techniques and music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript and researched the importance of the horse and horse cults in Welsh culture. All these interventions were a means to improvise historically informed music and re-evaluate the legacy of the harp in Wales but ultimately served as a jumping off point so as to create new possibilities."-Rhodri Davies
Watch a video on Culture Colony of Rhodri Davies stringing and performing on a Telyn Rawn.
Includes a 12-page booklet with text by Rhodri Davies in English and Welch, with images of the Telyn Rawn
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Rhodri Davies "Rhodri Davies was born in 1971 in Aberystwyth, Wales and now lives in Gateshead in the northeast of England. He plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice and fire harp installations. He has released four solo albums: Trem, Over Shadows, Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance. His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, Common Objects, HEN OGLEDD: Dawson - Davies, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Cranc, The Sealed Knot and a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch. In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on 'Self-cancellation', a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow. New pieces for solo harp have been composed for him by: Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award." ^ Hide Bio for Rhodri Davies
11/29/2023
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Penrhiw 2:37
2. Gorchan Sali 5:44
3. Y Gaseg Fedi 2:09
4. Angharat Ton Uelen 2:51
5. Maen Ceti 1:53
6. Rhywbeth 1:06
7. Afon Dewi Fawr 4:13
8. Ffarwel Arddol 3:24
9. Lwc i'r Ceffyl Melyn 2:11
10. Pengribyn 3:16
11. Cwrt Malle 3:00
12. Triban Cilrhedyn 1:16
13. Waunceiliogau 2:21
14. Dygan tro'r Ebill 2:47
15. Erddigan Gwawr 1:50
16. Gorhoffedd Rhisiart 2:38
17. Penglog Ceffyl 2:02
18. Y Don Newydd 1:52
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Stringed Instruments
Solo Artist Recordings
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Amgen Records.
 | Davies, Rhodri Dwa Dni (Amgen Records) |
| Two recording sessions yielding 15 recordings of solo harp improvisations in Rhodri Davies' fifth releases on his Amgen imprint, beautifully intricate works from exuberant to introspective, with titles borrowed from the works of Lisa Jarnot, Ed Luker, Nathaniel Mackey, Redell Olsen, Sun Ra, Nisha Ramayya, Sarah Riggs and Leslie Scalapino, and cover art by Jean-Luc Guionnet. | |
 | Mayas', Magda Filamental (w / Davies / Caddy / Theriot / Davies / Parkins / Thieke / Abdelnour) Confluence (Relative Pitch) |
| Composed by pianist Magda Mayas for an octet of superb avant improvisers including Rhodri Davies, Zeena Parkins, Michael Thieke, Angharad Davies, &c. and performed live at the 2019 Music Unlimited 33, in Wels, Austria, this extended work uses a graphic score to interpret 12 photographs taken over an hour observing the merging waters of the Rhone and the Arve rivers. | |
 | IST (Davies / Fell / Wastell) + John Butcher / Phil Durrant A More Attractive Way [5 CD BOX SET + 20 page booklet] (Confront) |
| A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators. | |
 | Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell) Twenty (Confront) |
| After twenty years playing together, the Sealed Knot trio of Burkhard Beins on amplified percussion, Rhodri Davies on amplified lap harp, and Mark Wastell on dual 32 past tam tams, gongs & nepalese singing bowls, performed live at Cafe OTO to record this beautifully captured, contemplative concert of tone, texture and ringing sound, like a 20-year dream reflected. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri / David Sylvian / Mark Wastell There Is No Love (Confront) |
| Confront initiates their new Core Series with the text piece "There Is No Love" with David Sylvian on voice, vocal treatments and electronics, Rhodri Davies on harp, vibraphone and radio, and Mark Wastel on tam tam and percussion, a sophisticated spoken word piece of shadowy atmosphere and innuendo, leveraging approaches from experimental, improvised and composed music. | |
 | Beuger, Antoine Two . Too (For Erwin-Josef Speckmann) [2 CDs] (Edition Wandelweiser Records) |
| Jurg Frey on clarinet and Irene Kurka on soprano vocals perform Wandelweiser composer Antoine Beuger's extended composition "Two"; then the duo of Rhodri Davies on harp and Ko Ishikawa on sho are layered on the first recording, creating a refreshingly new take on the piece. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri / John Butcher Routing Lynn (Ftarri) |
| Chris Watson recorded John Butcher on acoustic & amplified sax and Rhodri Davies on acoustic & electric harp in Routing Lynn in Northumberland, then joined them live at a festival in Gateshead where the duo played alongside Watson's reworked recordings. | |
 | Butcher, John / Rhodri Davies Carliol (Ftarri) |
| Dark and beautiful improvisation from saxophonist and electronics artist John Butcher and harpist Rhodri Davies, an incredible display of timbre, technique, and pacing. | |
 | Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell) and we disappear (Another Timbre) |
| For a decade this trio has created some of the most interesting electroacoustic improvisation, captured in a 38 minute performance at the Ear We Are Festival in Biel, Switzerland, 2007. | |
 | Eastley, Max / Rhodri Davies Dark Architecture (Another Timbre) |
| The duo of sound sculptor Max Eastley and electric harpist Rhodri Davies in an unedited recording performing live at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, UK. | |
 | Furt plus Equals (psi) |
| The followup to Furt's expanded format as heard on Spin Networks in 2005, in electroacoustic trios with John Butcher, Phil Minton, Rhodri Davies, Ute Wassermann, &c. | |
 | fORCH Spin Networks (psi) |
 | Davies, Rhodri Trem (Amgen Records) |
| Reissuing his 2003 album on the Confront label, Rhodri Davies' first solo album is a captivating set of uniquely voiced free improvisation, using a pedal harp, radio and tape recorders and percussive devices, and recorded in the natural resonance of All Angels, St Michael and All Angels Church in London, creating narrative and drama through Davie's intuitive sense of timing. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri Over Shadows (Amgen Records) |
| An extended solo titled for author Redell Olsen's book secure portable space (Reality Street), performed on Lever harp and EBows by UK electroacoustic improviser Rhodri Davies, recorded at Old School, Bracon Ash, in Norfolk in 2004 by Graham Halliwell and edited by Benedict Drew and John Wall, creating a richly evolving work of haunting plateaus and valleys. | |
 | Guionnet, Jean-Luc / Rhodri Davies Dyslexic Harp (Deciphered In The Dark) (Amgen Records) |
| Recording in Brussels, Rhodri Davies performs a composition for pedal harp written for and dedicated to him by composer and saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, using liberal periods of space that creates hanging anticipation amidst beautiful moments of fragmented string sequence and percussive response using the frame of the harp, leaving the listener in a state of fascinated expectancy. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri / Nikos Velitotis Hotel Art Head [BOOK] (gwasg amgen) |
| A curious book of images from artists including Rhodri Davies, John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Richard Dawson, &c. photographed in a location familiar to a touring musician--a budget hotel room--pictured laying on the bed with each artist's head covered by that room's hotel wall painting, from typically insipid to perplexingly unexpected. | |
| Davies, Rhodri Dwa Dni (Amgen Records) |
| Two recording sessions yielding 15 recordings of solo harp improvisations in Rhodri Davies' fifth release on his Amgen imprint, beautifully intricate works from exuberant to introspective, with titles borrowed from the works of Lisa Jarnot, Ed Luker, Nathaniel Mackey, Redell Olsen, Sun Ra, Nisha Ramayya, Sarah Riggs and Leslie Scalapino, and cover art by Jean-Luc Guionnet. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri For Simon H. Fell (Amgen Records) |
| Influenced by bassist Simon H. Fell since first hearing him in 1994 in a quartet with Peter Brotzmann, harpist Rhodri Davies approached Fell to work together, enjoying 20 years of collaborations in many group settings; in 2020 Simon H. Fell became seriously ill and passed in June of that year, this extended improvisation being Rhodri Davies' heartfelt tribute to the great improviser. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri An Air Swept Clean of All Distance (Amgen Records) |
| First release on the Alt.Vinyl label in 2014, this album finds harpist Rhodri Davies performing on the same instrument as his prior album Wound Response, but here with no amplification, preparations or distortion, improvising through "tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms", in a compelling album of assertive and joyful playing. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri Wound Response (Amgen Records) |
| First released in 2012 on the Alt.Vinyl label and now reissued on his own Amgen label, Rhodri Davies performs solo in Newcastle upon Tyne on lap harp and electronics, using two main techniques: over-articulation of the strings (what harpists are taught not to do) and attacking the strings with a plectrum, forcing the tuning into new relationships until the strings eventually break. | |
 | Granberg, Magnus / Skogen Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost (Another Timbre) |
| First performed in November 2019 at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and then at the Splitter Orchester festival in Berlin, this studio recording of Magnus Granberg's delicately complex and exquisitely dream-like composition features his Skogen ensemble, including Granberg, Rhodri Davies, Toshimaru Nakamura, Erik Carlsson, Petter Wastberg, &c. | |
 | Davies, Rhodri Transversal Time (Confront) |
| Assigning different times systems--standard time, decimal and hex time--to different musicians, harpist Rhodri Davies develops an electroacoustic improvisational environment of unusual perception and sensation, performed live in Cardiff in 2018 with Ryoko Akama, Sara Hughes, Sofia Jernberg, Pia Palme, Andre Parkinson, Lucy Railton, Pat Thomas, & Dafne Vicente. | |
 | Common Objects (Davies / Butcher / Davies / Lapelyte / Patterson / Thomas) Skullmarks (Meenna) |
| Distributing the group--John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Lina Lapelyte, Lee Patterson, Pat Thomas, and Rhodri Davies--inside the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, Butcher chose 4 shamanic objects from the museum's ethnographic collection, evoking water, air, earth, spirit, ritual and utility, used as a score orchestrating varying combinations of players; intense and profound improvisation. | |
| Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell) Consequences (of Time and Place) (Confront) | |
| ist (The Improvising String Trio) of Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Wastell (violincello) performing at The Natural Music Club in London, 1997, using unorthodox techniques in indeterminate systems and free improvisation for fascinating results. | |
| Halliwell, Graham Recorded Delivery (Confront) | |
| Saxophonist Halliwell appears here in three duo performances with Rhodri Davies playing E-bowed harp; Steve Roden with extracts from his "resonantlighttones"; and Mark Wastell on tam-tam. | |
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