The Blind Boys of Alabama to receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Americana Music Association
The cermony takes place on 18 September at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.
Wed, 03 July 24
Released 28 April 2016
Liner notes
9Bach’s new album is called Anian —a soulful, brooding record whose songs take a critical look at the world in which we live.
Anian is a Welsh word meaning nature, the natural order, natural morality, the natural world, creation. What you are made of, your soul and bones, and how you connect with other people.
The double-CD package includes the unique companion piece Yn dy lais / In your voice, wherein writers, actors, poets, and singers —Peter Gabriel, Maxine Peake and Rhys Ifans among them— give their own interpretations of the songs as a way to convey their meanings to a non-Welsh speaking audience.
Anian is 9Bach’s third album. Like 2014’s Tincian it begins in North Wales, but broadens out through Greek and Near Eastern influences into an emotional tour de force. Angry, sad, but most of all passionate at the state of the world, the album taps into a truly universal language.
While Tincian was very much rooted in hiraeth, the scarred past of the mountainous mining landscape of the Ogwen Valley, North Wales, Anian looks outwards into the present. As singer, composer and pianist Lisa Jên explains, it comes from a desperate, anarchic place. “It marks where I’m at, whether it’s my age, being a mother, or simply being much more exposed to social media where I’m faced with pictures and videos, images and words which I find difficult to cope with right now.”
The eleven songs move from the rolling rhythms of ‘Llyn Du’ to the piano settings of ‘Ifan’ and ‘Deryn’, the layered voices of ‘Brain’ and ‘Si Hwi Hwi’ to the full band, Near Eastern climax of ‘Cyfaddefa’. At the centre is always Lisa Jên’s voice, and the instinctive way in which 9Bach work together.
“The songs always start with the vocal melody,” says Martin Hoyland. “Then it’s my job to build the instrumentation and arrangements around that, and to complement it as much as possible.”
Appearances are deceptive. Beneath the crystalline surface of Anian lie raging emotions. “I can’t write a song about nothing,’ stresses Lisa. “It has to have a heartbeat. I am trying to challenge the listener, whether it’s making them feel left out because they don’t have a crow that brings them gifts, or scowling at them for killing the last living white rhino.”
There is a dystopian feel to this album; its underlying themes are dark and heavy, prompting the question: who am I and what am I doing to help anyone? But there is also hope in the songs, a celebration of relationships and acts of kindness that bring happiness.
"There is a seed in my belly, it feels revolutionary, it feels like there is a movement where our generation just might be waking up from a very long deep sleep. Something has to change though, right?" Lisa Jen
Gallery
Anian was recorded at Real World Studios by Lisa Jên (vocals, piano), Martin Hoyland (guitars, hammer dulcimer), Ali Byworth (drums & percussion), Dan Swain (electric bass guitar & double bass), Esyllt Glyn Jones (harp, vocals), and Mirain Roberts (piano, vocals, hammer dulcimer). This is the same line-up as recorded Tincian, but, as Martin explains, it was a very different experience. “We did have a general plan of what we wanted beforehand, but the way we work means it doesn’t always work out like that.”
The loose blueprint was to develop those stunning three-part harmonies, and then to introduce instruments they hadn’t used before, like hammer dulcimer and double bass. Perhaps surprisingly, Martin reveals they had intended to make a more upbeat album, but soon realised this wasn’t going to work: “There was just no way we were going to make upbeat versions of ‘Deryn’, ‘Ifan’, or ‘Ambell Hiraeth’. The subject matter is far too brooding.”
Recording live in the studio, with just a touch of overdubbing, the musicians were able to respond to each other emotionally, to react to the anger and sadness in some of the songs, with the band responding to the vocals and vice versa. “A big part of what we do is to convey sentiment, feeling, emotion in the sound, especially for a non-Welsh language audience, so it made total sense to capture that together,” says Martin.
Further Listening
Released 11 May 2014
Released 07 July 2016
The cermony takes place on 18 September at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.
Wed, 03 July 24
Pendo & Leah Zawose will perform at festivals including Glastonbury Festival and WOMAD.
Mon, 13 May 24
'AmmA' draws on music from north-east Morocco and influences from Tunisia and Algeria.
Fri, 08 March 24
Righteous anger has never felt so warm and convincing. Or so goddam danceable.
Thu, 15 February 24