LP from Alt. Vinyl.

‘Stands out in Davies’ discography in that, at an hour long, it is the most expansive of his recorded solo improvisations. Listening to the piece, one is struck by how he structures the overall trajectory of the improvisation. Utilizing a full arsenal of extended techniques, preparations, and bows Davies conjures up a wide string palette across the full sonic range of his instrument eliciting the sounds of everything from harp to prepared piano to groaning bass to guitar to string group. But for all of the technical mastery and timbral breadth, there is an overarching sense of structure and pacing which never flags for a moment’ (Michael Rosenstein, Point of Departure).

‘Revisiting the scordatura tunings found on Telyn Rawn but this time played on the lap harp that he plays on An Air Swept Clean Of All Distance. Acoustic harp, played with no amplification, preparations or distortion. A sunburst of multiple voices and interwoven melodies and rhythms.’
Recorded over two days — dwa din, in Polish — in January 2021.

A terrific album by the Hen Ogledd conspirator, and collaborator with the likes of Derek Bailey, Bill Orcutt and Jon Butcher.
A telyn rawn is a harp strung with wound and pleated horse hair. (Tristram Shandy would have a field day.) It’s maybe a millennium old; passing into obscurity around two hundred years ago.
“All the music on this album is improvised. I designed and built a long forgotten instrument, 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.”
The music is warmly compelling: polyphonic, convivial, rootsy, evocative, often mesmeric, sometimes banging.
Ancient Welsh folk veers into koto and kora, Appalachian dulcimer and Norwegian langeleik; the wheezing, wailing, rocking traditions of drones and sawing from Louisiana to Albania are streamed into the Valleys, and out again, changed.
Handsomely presented, too. Hotly recommended.