Plu – “Deio’r Glyn” & Gwyneth Glyn – “Pa Bryd y Deui Eto?” (When Will Thou Come Again?)

Hiya people! 🙂 

 

Today, I’d like to share with you another song by Plu – the Welsh alt-folk sibling trio – specifically from the album they released last year, which is Tri. While most of the songs on it, as is generally the case with Plu, are their original, there are a few exceptions, and Deio’r Glyn is one of the two traditional songs on this album. It is a love song, I guess more widely known under the title “Pa Bryd y Deui Eto?”, after its first line. 

 

I first heard a version by 9Bach, a Welsh folk group whom I discovered relatively early on in my journey with Welsh-language music, and their recording is amazing too, so if you haven’t heard it before and like the song, I highly recommend it, I might also share it on here as well at some point, I just thought it could be quite overwhelming if I posted three different versions of the same song in one post (though it’s not like it hadn’t happened before 😀 ).

I think Plu’s version is totally enthralling. It has quite a peculiar feel to me – dark and slightly sinister, while warm and soothing at the same time. – In a way, their rendition gave me a completely different perspective on this song. I don’t know about other people, but, as someone who generally over-analyses everything, when I listen to a song, I often catch myself almost subconsciously imagining the whole story behind it. And ever since I got to know what this song is about, when listening to either 9Bach’s or Gwyneth Glyn’s rendition, I just assumed without much thinking that this Deio’r Glyn guy must be some sort of traveller, maybe emigrated temporarily, or maybe he’s a sailor. But when I heard Plu’s version, a thought just popped into my brain that perhaps there’s something more going on than meets the eye. Perhaps he was killed, for whatever reason, and she’s just waiting ‘cause she doesn’t have much, if any, hope left, just is unable to do much of anything else out of despair than continue to almost catatonically keep watch by the window. Or maybe he cheated on her. Or went to the woods, in search of, idk, kindling, or mushrooms, or whatever and hasn’t come back and she doesn’t know what could have happened. 

 

Yet, as I said, simultaneously, I perceive Plu’s version to be very warm and soothing, partly because usually Plu’s music has that quality to me, but also because I feel that, unlike Lisa Jên from 9Bach or Gwyneth Glyn, who seem to put themselves directly in Gwenno’s – the lyrical subject of this song – shoes, Marged and Gwilym seem to sing it from more of an outside observer’s perspective. One who is empathetic, but naturally a bit distant, because they’re not her. Like third-person narration or something. I wonder if it’s just me or if any of you feel similarly. 

 

And I love Gwyneth Glyn’s rendition because she did it a capella, and that sort of automatically makes it feel more expressive. In the beginning of my Welsh-language music journey, I wasn’t so much into Gwyneth’s music for some reason that I don’t even understand now myself really, but over the years, it’s really grown on me and lately I listen to her quite a lot and appreciate her versatility greatly. But I’m also sharing it for a more practical reason – the video of it that I’m including with the post has an English translation of the lyrics (as well as the original lyrics) in the description, so I don’t have to do a translation for you guys myself. 😀 And by the way, for any Welsh learners or linguistic freaks or whoever else interested who might be reading, it’s this song that made me realise that people used to use mutations even with personal names (like Gwenno=dy Wenno here). Or maybe it’s still a thing in Welsh and I’m just clueless… 😀 For those who don’t know and are curious, mutations in Celtic languages is, very basically, a grammar thing where some letters in words, usually the first letter at the beginning of a word at least in Welsh, changes depending on the grammatical context – for example what word is in front of it. – 

 

Plu: 

 

 

Gwyneth Glyn: 

 

Eileen Hadidian and Natalie Cox – “Star of County Down”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Today I’d like to share with you an Irish traditional song. It is played by an American duo of flautist Eileen Hadidian and Natalie Cox. Eileen Hadidian is strongly involved with the healing and therapeutic aspects of music and runs an organisation dedicated for this cause. Natalie Cox is a very versatile harpist who seems comfortable playing different music genres. I’ve already shared another harp instrumental version of this song, played by Anne Crosby Gaudet. 

 

Valkyrien Allstars – “Kom Hjem” (Come home).

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today, I’d like to share with you a song by a Norwegian folk group called Valkyrien Allstars. I’ve known about them for a long time and have often heard their music playing on the Norwegian radio or when listening to Norwegian folk in general, but while I did like their sound, somehow I’d never really given them more attention until recently. So since I finally have, and their music has grown on me a bit further, I’d like to share a song by them today. Valkyrien Allstars, also known as Valkyrien, started out as a hardanger fiddle trio (hardanger fiddle is Norway’s national instrument, just in case you haven’t heard about it, although even if you’re not into Scandinavian folk yourself but have been on here before, chances are you have heard it and about it already as it’s not the first time I’m sharing something by someone who plays the hardanger fiddle). Currently it consists of Tuva Livsdatter Syvertsen (who is also the vocalist), and Erik Sollid. Originally Ola Hilmen was also part of the group. This is one of their more pop-y songs. I made a translation, although honestly it’s hard for me to say right now how good or bad it is as I happen to be quite brain-drained currently. 😀 There was one line that made very little sense to me (I have a feeling it would possibly make more sense if I had more brain CPU available at the moment), but I didn’t feel like spending ages on a logophile’s hunt to decrypt it so just copy-pasted it from another existing translation which seemed okay overall, though the accuracy of translations on that particular website can vary greatly, so it may be wrong, as may other bits of my own translation. 

 

Please come back, my friend

Come home

Now you’re in trouble 

You gotta come home

 

Now you’re so far away again

Now it’s time to find a bed

If you’ll be for long down there

Then you may go blind

 

Your eyes, looking at the ceiling

I would rather see you smile

The light is there, hidden by the fog

Rise up, then you’ll see

 

It hurts so much to leave you tonight

Just us two again

Now you must take good care of yourself

You’ll be left behind again one night [?] 

 

Now the day is somewhere else

Wait a few hours and it will come

But you must sleep alone

 

We walk here as if the earth were flat

But things are coming back

And everything just feels completely strange

And no one knows why and no one knows what

 

There is still work to be done 

Still possible to do well

First straight out of the fog

Even if everyone remembers everything you said

 

Now the day is somewhere else

Wait a few hours and it will come

But you must sleep alone

Inge Frimout-Hei – “Loch Shiel.”

Hi people! 🙂 

 

For today I chose a very evocative piece from Dutch harpist Inge Frimout-Hei. Inge has recorded many albums with particular themes to them, including one with the theme of moon phases, or another on planets. This track comes from the album titled Jacobite Train, so, as you can guess from that, it’s themed around various locations in Scotland. This piece is named after a loch near Fort William. 

 

Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena – “Didn’t See the Comet”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Today I’d like to share with you a deliciously otherworldly piece by harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist Paul Sukeena. They are neighbours, and during the Covid lockdown they spent a lot of time playing music together. Earlier this year I have shared their first collaborative single, Dreaming of the Kelly Pool. This is a single from their album West Kensington, and not the first celestial-themed piece in Mary Lattimore’s discography. Ifind the both airy and hazy feel of this track very appealing. 

 

Hirundo Maris – “Sea Fever”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Today, I’d like to share with you a song by HIrundo Maris, a group founded by Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen, which make a sort of fusion between baroque/early music and folk. I have shared several other of their songs, as well as some music from Arianna’s solo albums over the last year. This song is a poem by English poet John Masefield, set to music and sung by Petter Udland Johansen. Even the name of the group shows that the sea and related things are a significant theme in Hirundo Maris’ music. This poem is from the perspective of a sailor who longs to be back at sea.