Edyf

Queer Welsh composer and multi-instrumentalist Cerys Hafana is acknowledged as a fearless explorer of the creative possibilities and unique qualities of the fiendishly tricky triple harp – especially since the release of her 2020 debut album cwmwl when she was just 18 years old. Entwining tradition with direct and personal interpretations in music that can be both progressive and profound, she contributes as a writer and broadcaster to the ongoing cultural debate on Welsh music and queer identity.

Especially as a non-Welsh speaker, it’s difficult to avoid trite descriptions such as ‘enchanting’ for much of her remarkable second album, Edyf (Thread) but perhaps the most obviously appealing, and clearly significant, track here is the first single ‘Tragwyddoldeb’ (Eternity). The repeating chord progression and repeating cross-rhythms and patterns could only be played on a triple harp, while the song’s words have been adapted from a hymn found in the Welsh National Library’s ballads archive. ‘I was looking for ballads, hymns and poems in the archive that had some sort of connection to my life now, however tenuous,’ Hafana says. ‘Lots of the ones that I found were very biblical, but as they probably hadn’t been sung for hundreds of years, I felt I had a right to remove the more explicitly religious bits and focus on the parts that spoke to me. This song was originally about eternity in the heavenly sense, but the verses reminded me of how I felt when I was first introduced to the idea that the universe is infinite. Old Welsh poetry can be slightly impenetrable but this song was surprisingly accessible.’