Tag: Plu

Song of the day (7th February) – Plu – “Tyrd yn ôl” (Come Back).

   Hi people! 🙂 

   For our overdue song of the day for Tuesday, I chose a song by the Welsh alt-folk trio Plu, who have been featured on this blog many times before. This particular song is from their 2013 self-titled album. 

Plu – “Gollwng Gafael” (Letting Go).

   Hey dear people! 🙂 

   Today I’d like to share with you this lovely song by the Welsh alt-folk trio Plu, whose music is fairly frequently featured on here. It comes from their album Tir a Golau (Lad and Lights). Quite surprisingly for myself, I was even able to translate it. You guys know that I’m still pretty bad at translating Welsh music solely by ear, and when you’re into some small languages, it’s not always as comfy as googling “Artist Song lyrics” and finding said lyrics right away, because often it might require a bit more perseverance to find what you’re looking for at the bottom of the Internet, or it might not be available online at all. Plu’s lyrics usually don’t seem to be, but what I always try to do in such cases is fish out a part of lyrics that I can completely understand and that at the same time is not too generic and distinct enough that it’s not likely to pop up in too many other contexts except what I’m looking for, and then I google it in quotes. And this time round, I happened to be lucky, because I found an S4C (Welsh-language television channel) transscript of a programme where Plu were singing this song. And the lyrics are pretty easy linguistically so I was able to translate it with no particular issues, though again, it’s not like I’m an experienced Welsh-English translator or a native speaker of either of these languages so it’s definitely possible that it has some mistakes or that it just could be better, but as always it’s just to give you more or less of an idea of what it is about. I am sharing with you a live version of this song which they sang at a Celtic music festival called Cwlwm Celtaidd. They precede the song with two verses of a traditional Welsh lullaby called Mil Harddach (A Thousand Times More Beautiful), for which the below translation comes from Mama Lisa’s website. 

   You’re a thousand times more beautiful than the white rose
Or the red rose on the hillside,
Or the proud swan swimming in the lake,
My little baby.
A thousand times better than all the gold in the world
Is to see your smiles in your crib,
You are my fortune and my blessing,
My little baby.

And here’s Bibielz translation of Gollwng Gafael. 

      You love the land more than the earth 

And the wave more than the water 

You love “was” more than “will” 

And what is the world without its story? 

Without sky, there are no horizons 

Without tomorrow, there is no yesterday 

Open your eyes 

To experience letting go 

For you, the inspiration is in a song 

And the bleak books in front of you 

The inspiration is everyday 

Uncovering the truth 

By pulling off every layer 

Without sky, there are no horizons 

Without tomorrow, there is no yesterday 

Open your eyes 

To experience letting go 

   You love the land more than the earth 

More than the truth 

Plu – “Storm Dros Pen Y Fâl” (Storm Over Sugar Loaf).

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Today, I’d like to share with you another song from Plu’s most recent album called Tri, the fourth one on this blog. It is really beautiful and captivating, and seems to captivate me a little more every time I listen to it. It’s about a mountain, which is called Pen y Fâl in Welsh, or Sugar Loaf in English. It is one of the highest peaks in the Black Mountains in Abergavenny. I thought I’d share with you their live performance of this song. 

Plu – “Ben I Waered” (Upside Down).

   Hey dear people! 🙂 

   Yesterday I happened to have a migraine, and spent a lot of time in bed listening to Plu, whose music I always find very soothing, in a way that is also extremely soul-enriching, even though I’ve listened to them a lot before, because every time I listen to them I either explore something new in their music, or it makes me think of something different, or makes a different imagery pop into my brain. So it’s kind of like re-reading the same book. And their music is also great to fall asleep to. So I thought that today I’d share another song, the third one on here, from Plu’s most recent album called Tri, which came out last April and about which I’ve already raved before in this post where I also wrote in more detail about this album. Most of the songs on it are Plu’s original, and so is the case with this beautiful, dreamy and soaring piece. Despite my recent mini- yet very encouraging nonetheless successes with Welsh translations, I wasn’t able to translate this one for you unfortunately, because its lyrics don’t seem to be available anywhere online, and when I attempted doing it by ear, obviously I encountered a lot of words that I didn’t know and couldn’t quite figure out how they should be spelt to look them up in a dictionary or something. But very generally and shortly, from what I gather, the lyrical subject is in love with someone and talks about her feelings and sensations relating to this person, their presence etc. in a way that feels very subtle, I believe this person has actually left her or something and she longs for him, and she says something along the lines of that looking in the eyes and into the soul of this person makes her heart turn upside down. 

Plu – “Hiraeth” (Longing).

   Hi all you lovely people! 🙂 

   Today I’d really like to share with you all this incredibly beautiful song by Plu. It is a traditional one, and it’s very beautiful as such in itself and very much resonates with my brain, but it’s even more so and feels even deeper in Plu’s arrangement. I translated the title of this song as longing because that’s what the word hiraeth is usually translated as, but really as I’ve written several times before, this word doesn’t have a proper equivalent in English. I find hiraeth very interesting and I’ve tried explaining and defining what it means, for example in this post with another song about hiraeth. You can also find more about it in this post by Ceri Davies   from which also comes the English translation below. 

   Gold fades and silver fades


Velvet fades silk fades


Every sort of clothing fades


And yet hiraeth doesn’t fade


Great Hiraeth cruel hiraeth


Hiraeth tears at my heart


When I’m sleeping deeply at night


Hiraeth comes and wakes me


Hiraeth hiraeth away away


Don’t weigh so heavily on me


Go a little nearer to the edge


Let me have a little bit of sleep

Plu – “Porth Samddai”.

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Well, time to share some more music from that new album by Plu – Tri – that I gushed about when it came out. You can read more extensively about it in the post above. It’s been over three months since I first heard it and I’m still listening to it as a whole. I normally don’t do that a lot with albums that I would listen to them as a whole lots of times, usually it’s just once, or 2-3 times if I think it’s really good and then I just listen to individual songs whenever I feel like it, but it’s different with my faza people’s music as well as anything that is just insanely good in my opinion or has a lasting impression on my brain for some reason. 

   This song, unlike the one I shared in the post above, is Plu’s original to my knowledge. Generally though, i haven’t been able to find out much about it, which is quite a pity. There seems to be some sort of a location called Porth Samddai somewhere near/within Caernarfon in Wales but that’s about everything I know. I find the little bits of lyrics that I’ve been able to understand over time very interesting and am looking forward to when I’ll be able to understand more of it, but so far I am definitely not able to translate it or anything. I said in my previous post about this album that it feels closer to the alt- side of the alt-folk spectrum, unlike the previous ones which drew closer to the -folk side, and this is one of these pieces that I think show this gentle shift very well. 

Plu – “Sgwennaf Lythyr” (I Will Write a Letter).

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Today let’s listen to a song by Plu, the alt-folk trio from North Wales consisting of siblings Elan, Marged and Gwilym Rhys. This song comes from their self-titled album and here’s a live version of it. 

Plu – “Nos Da Nawr” (Goodnight Now).

   Hiya people! 🙂 

   For today, I have a lovely little children’s lullaby for you, from Plu’s album called Holl Anifeiliaid y Goedwig (All Animals of the Forest). As far as I can tell, this lullaby is about what various animals do before bedtime and how they prepare for sleep. 

Plu – “Llwynog Coch Sy’n Cysgu” (Red Fox is Sleeping).

   And for today I also chose a song that Gwilym Bowen Rhys has contributed to, ‘cause why not? It’s a song by the band Plu who surely are well-known to the more regular readers of my blog – the alt-folk sibling trio of Elan, Marged and Gwilym Rhys. – It is a nice little Welsh nursery rhyme or a lullaby, from their album Holl Anifeiliaid y Goedwig (All Animals of the Forest) with a very self-explanatory title as to what it is about. I really like their arrangement of it. I rarely translate Welsh songs for you myself as I still don’t feel as confident in this as I do with Swedish or even Norwegian, but (even though as you’ll find out this song has such extremely sophisticated and difficult lyrics) I was able to translate it for you, and, miraculously, my brain hasn’t even exploded as a result of such ultra-strenuous activity, yay! 

  Red Fox is sleeping
Red Fox is sleeping
Red Fox is sleeping
On the meadow.
Red Fox is dreaming
Red Fox is dreaming
Red fox is dreaming
On the meadow
Who is going to see
Who is going to see
Who is going to see
On the meadow?
A red eye is opening
A red eye is opening
A red eye is opening
On the meadow
Red fox is waking
Red fox is waking
Red fox is waking
On the meadow
Red fox is wandering
Red fox is wandering
Red fox is wandering
On the meadow
Red fox is tired
Red fox is tired
Red fox is tired
On the meadow
Red fox is sleeping
Red fox is sleeping
Red fox is sleeping
On the meadow

Plu – “Dod Dy Law” (Place Your Hand).

   Hiya all you lovely people! 😁 

   After less than two months since the second installment of Gwilym Bowen Rhys’ record series Detholiad o Hen Faledi (A Selection of Old Ballads ) has been out, we can now celebrate the release of yet another beautiful album of delicious Welsh-language music, which is a creation of the alt-folk trio Plu, which consists of siblings Elan Mererid Owain, Marged Eiry Rhys and the aforementioned Gwilym Bowen Rhys from the Caernarfon area in North Wales. For any newbies out there, Gwilym  is one of my faza people, which means events like this are a really huge thing over here in Bibielland. Like I mentioned in the post linked above where I shared one of Gwilym’s songs from his latest solo album, so far he happens to be the most actively prolific of my faza peeps when it comes to releasing new music currently, so I always make a lot of fuss when he does release something because my other faza peeps currently don’t really do it either regularly or at all. ANd so this year, being able to enjoy not only Gwilym’s new album solo but also a new release from Plu, I feel like I’m being spoilt absolutely rotten! 

   This new album is simply called Tri (Three) and was released by Sbrigyn Ymborth – a branch of the label Sain. Like their previous albums it was recorded at Studio Sain and produced by Plu with Aled Wyn Hughes, known for example from Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog. Most of the songs are Plu’s own material. As far as I know, it came out on April 29, however, on that day Bibielz were completely out of touch with the  world thanks to a migraine, so  only got it yesterday. I’ve already mentioned a lot on here that when it comes to my faza peeps’ music that I hear for the first time – be it objectively new or just new to me – i like to listen to it  in specific conditions, and that, among other things, means it has to be when most  people in my timezone are likely to be asleep, and it’s crucial  that all the people in my household are asleep, so I can have complete peace and as few external distractions as possible. And I had to wait a long time to have this particular condition fulfilled, because the first days of May are always grilling (or, as Sofi used to say to annoy me when she was younger, gwilling ) 😒 ) time here in Poland because we have national holidays and the weather usually starts feeling warmer and stuff, and so my family was grilling as well and it was practically only today – a couple hours after midnight – that I was able to focus my  attention solely on Plu. So more thorough listens are definitely due, but I was feeling too giddy about it to wait longer with sharing the news with y’all. 😀 

    This was a very interesting experience, and a little surprising. I’ve always thought that Plu were not only a well-developed and already fully-shaped but also a really very mature band musically, but I think since their last album called Tir a Golau (Land and Lights) in 2015 (not counting their more recent Bendith collaboration that they did together with Carwyn Ellis from Colorama) a lot must have been going on for all of them, because they have grown even more, as mind-blowing as it is. I’d say that, as a whole, pretty much from start to finish, this album has a bit more of a substantial vibe to it. What I mean is, Plu’s earlier albums feel very ethereal and otherworldly, airy kind of, giving you a feeling as if you have suddenly found yourself in some beautiful, alternate realm woven from clouds,  mist and moonlight (not that I’ve ever seen any of those visual phenomena but these are the sort of things that Plu’s sound makes me think of nonetheless), or something akin to Avalon, which is one of the reasons why I originally fell in love with their music and I’m sure they’re called Plu (feathers) for a reason. This album definitely doesn’t lack that soft lightness, but at the same time it feels more earthly as a whole than their previous releases. Perhaps some part of why I get this impression is that we have a bit different instrumentation here, featuring more electric guitars than in the past (courtesy of Dafydd Owain and Aled Hughes) as well as drums (Carwyn Williams) which were never part of Plu’s instrumentation before, well at least not on any of their studio recordings. Something about their amazing three-part harmonies feels different too, and makes this album sound slightly closer towards the alt- end of the alt-folk spectrum than its predecessors. Throughout the album, I literally couldn’t stop marvelling at how rich, expressive and extremely flexible ELan’s voice is! And Gwilym’s exquisite guitar play… I’ve always been in awe of his skills with all them beautiful stringed instruments and raved over them on here a lot, but I have a particular liking for how he plays the guitar in Plu, it makes all my brain cells shiver with happiness. 

   The album is not available in places like YouTube or Spotify or Apple Music or wherever else people typically listen to music these days, and given that Gwilym’s last album hasn’t made his way there to Spotify which is what I use, I believe it’s possible they don’t feel like having it on there.  I have finally figured out though that (surprise, surprise! 🙃 ) you can also embed songs from Bandcamp on other websites, so that’s how I’ll share my joy with you. 

   Honestly though I had a real trouble picking out that ONE song that is the clear winner of this album for me, because I have several strong favourites. I eventually decided on Dod Dy Law mostly because I also really like this tune in general, and I’ve shared several different versions of it on my blog already so I thought it could be interesting for people to hear this one for comparison. 

   I’ve shared it sung by Gwilym, Siân James, and Gwenan Gibbard, and in the post with Gwenan Gibbard’s version you can also find its translation and a link to a lot more comprehensive post that Ffion from The Foxglove Trio wrote about this song on her blog. It’s a very sad, traditional tune written from the perspective of someone who addresses their lover, by whom their heart has been broken. 

   I like that Elan sings this song so low, with only a gentle guitar accompaniment from Gwilym, which makes the whole sound a bit dark and deep and so incredibly beautiful. 

Plu – “Mam Wnaeth Gôt i Mi” (Mum Made the Coat for Me).

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Today I want to share with you a happy little tune from Plu’s album Holl Anifeiliaid y Goedwig (All Animals of the Forest). All the songs on this album feature some animal(s) and I believe most of them are traditional. So seems to be the case with this one as well. From what I can gather from the lyrics, here we have birds, and the lyrical subject of the song goes around and asks different birds where they’ve got their coats. To which they all respond that it was their mum, and I believe they all say that their mums have made it “from a piece of air” or something like that, and each of them adds when their mum made it, for example “when it was the middle of summer” or “when it was raining” etc. 

Plu – “Cwm Pennant”.

   For today, I want to share with you a song by Plu, the Welsh alt-folk trio consisting of siblings Elan, Marged and Gwilym Rhys. As the title of this piece suggests, it is about the valley in Snowdonia in Gwynedd, often called the most beautiful Welsh valley. 

Plu – Diwrnod Cynta’r Gwanwyn” (First Day of Spring).

   Hi people! 🙂 

   So, on Thursday we celebrated Gwilym Bowen Rhys’ new album, and yesterday listened to a song by Trwynau Coch, which is also related to Gwilym in that his dad was a member of that band. I thought why not stay a little bit longer in the world of Gwil-related music, and for today I chose to share with you this lovely, fresh, instrumental piece by Plu, the sibling trio whose music I’ve shared on here many times before and which of course Gwilym is also a part of, alongside his sisters Elan and marged. I think this spring-like piece is also very suitable now, as, at least over here, it definitely feels like spring is on our doorstep and we’ve had some lovely, sunny days. 

Plu – “Blodau Oll” (All Flowers).

   And for today, I’d like to share with you a beautiful song by the Welsh trio Plu, which I’m pretty sure is their original composition. While it’s Elan Mererid – the eldest of the siblings – who is the leader of Plu, and most often it’s her who sings the lead vocals, in this song we can hear Marged Eiry as the leading vocalist. 

Plu – “Hedfan” (Flying”.

Hey people! 🙂

For today, I want to share with you a beautiful piece from Plu – the Welsh alt-folk trio comprised of siblings Elan, Marged, and Gwilym Rhys. – According to the credits of this song, it was written by Welsh musician Endaf Emlyn. I really like the harmony of this piece.

Song of the day (17th August) – Plu – “Geiriau Allweddol” (Keywords).

Hiya people! 🙂

I thought I’d share with you this very dynamic song from Plu. It comes from their self-titled debut album and it’s their original, with Elan’s and Marged’s lyrics, and Gwilym’s music.

Plu – “Ar Garlam” (Galloping).

Hey people! 🙂

Today let’s listen to a song by Plu, from their album with children’s songs called Holl Anifeiliad y Goedwig (All Animals in the Forest). This is one of my favourite songs on this album musically, although my understanding of the lyrics is rather patchy so I can’t share any translation or anything like that with you.