\u2018It\u2019s often dealing with quite elemental things,\u201d says the vocalist Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth of Tristwch y Fenywod\u2019s music. \u201cThe sense of being in an ancient landscape; or the enchanted, sapphic feeling of being by the ocean. Our music addresses things that are simple and foundational, but very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Released last August \u2013 and now being performed live by the band across the summer festival circuit \u2013 the trio\u2019s self-titled debut album is a lush, cathartic mix of gothic instrumentation and eldritch melody, like a lost Cocteau Twins masterpiece recorded in a cave in Eryri, stirring intense feelings even in those who can\u2019t understand its Welsh lyrics. There\u2019s a political dimension too. \u201cThe oppression of the Welsh language over the past 200 years was so aggressive,\u201d says the drummer Leila Lygad, citing how Welsh children were forced to speak English in 19th- and 20th-century schools. \u201cIt feels important to champion languages that have been oppressed by colonial systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Formed in Leeds by members of the underground groups Guttersnipe, Hawthonn and the Courtneys, and using Welsh pseudonyms for the project, Tristwch y Fenywod tap into a particularly Welsh mysticism. Ferch Lisbeth was born in Bangor, and lived in North Wales<\/a> until the age of 12. \u201cI always found it to be a very mystical place,\u201d she says. \u201cThe language was definitely part of that, although we were in the minority of not being a Welsh-speaking family.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe no one\u2019s ever written songs in Welsh from these perspectives, and it\u2019s about time they existed<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth<\/p>\n Before living in Leeds, Lygad grew up on the nearby Staffordshire-Shropshire border, and spent her childhood \u201cwalking on Penmaenmawr mountain\u201d \u2013 on the North Wales coast \u2013 \u201cand visiting the first stone circle I\u2019d ever been to\u201d, which sparked \u201ca lifetime interest in archaeology, history and Welsh culture\u201d.<\/p>\n Ferch Lisbeth\u2019s family moved her to England aged 12, but the landscape and language of Wales stayed in her subconscious. In 2020, after discovering a friend on the Leeds experimental music scene was a fluent speaker, she dedicated herself to learning Welsh \u201cobsessively, every minute of every day\u201d. She\u2019d also started to date the band\u2019s third member, the Canadian bassist Sidni Sarffwraig, and the pair visited North Wales together. \u201cHaving this beautiful sapphic connection in those places felt profound,\u201d says Ferch Lisbeth. \u201cIt was some logical arrival of fate for me; different threads of the psyche converging.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018For neurodivergent people, experimental music is a space to unmask\u2019 \u2026 left to right: Leila Lygad, Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth and Sidni Sarffwraig.<\/p>\n When Tristwch y Fenywod formed in 2022, Ferch Lisbeth was driven to sing in Welsh about queerness, mysticism and belonging, because \u201cmaybe no one\u2019s ever written a song in Welsh from this perspective, and it\u2019s about time it existed.\u201d Their band name translates to \u201cthe sadness of women\u201d, and they are inspired by the \u201cstately, elegant, feminine sadness\u201d of groups such as Dead Can Dance.<\/p>\n They also embrace the experimental amateurism of the 1970s no wave scene. Lygad plays electronic drums, programmed with unconventional sounds from field recordings. Her snare is a recording of a snapping toy from a joke shop she exploded in an underground bunker, while her toms are the clicks made by echolocating bats, a particularly goth detail of her set-up. Sarffwraig plays a standard bass guitar, but Ferch Lisbeth plays a self-made instrument she calls a dwydelyn \u2013 Welsh for \u201ctwo-harp\u201d \u2013 constructed from two zithers and a contact mic: \u201cI was thinking about Celtic harp music, and the first Dead Can Dance record where Lisa Gerrard is playing the yangqin [a Chinese dulcimer].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The three of them talk admiringly about the adventurous atmosphere they\u2019ve cultivated within the band, and that\u2019s echoed in the Leeds scene that nurtured them. At the centre is Wharf Chambers<\/a>, an accessible, co-op-run venue where, according to Ferch Lisbeth, \u201chonesty is rewarded and genuineness of expression is the goal\u201d. This is especially crucial for a band who are all neurodivergent. \u201cFor neurodivergent people, experimental music is a space to unmask and be publicly witnessed experiencing intense emotions,\u201d says Sarffwraig. \u201cThe scene around Wharf Chambers gave us space to do something weird in a language people don\u2019t understand. DIY venues have to be protected because they\u2019re so important for experimentation.\u201d<\/p>\n The band have found a similarly supportive second home in North Wales, in a community of alternative Welsh and Welsh-language musicians such as Anxiolytics<\/a>, Sister Wives<\/a> and Cerys Hafana<\/a> that has \u201ca very wholesome, casual inclusion of queer, trans and neurodivergent people\u201d, according to Ferch Lisbeth. Established Welsh musicians have shown support, including Datblygu and the Super Furry Animals producer Gorwel Owen, members of Fflaps, and the singer Gwenno<\/a>, who has recorded albums in Welsh and Cornish. \u201cGwenno is a very important figure,\u201d says Lygad. \u201cShe\u2019s championing minority languages and is an outspoken anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a way of respecting the past and tradition without the politics of nationalist ideas<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sidni Sarffwraig<\/p>\n Outside of Wales, Tristwch y Fenywod have a kinship with groups such as Kneecap and Lankum, who share their anti-colonial approach to language and folk tradition. \u201cIt\u2019s been lovely seeing Kneecap have success with the Irish language and take it to the mainstream, because that\u2019s where it should be,\u201d says Lygad.<\/p>\n The band hope their music inspires people to learn Welsh, or other minority languages, for pleasure and resistance. \u201cPeople talk about wanting large-scale systemic change, but they\u2019re still using the [English] language of laws and power structures,\u201d says Ferch Lisbeth, who sees every language as \u201ca different system of perception\u201d. They also model a radical connection with history and heritage. \u201cThere\u2019s a way of respecting the past and tradition without the politics of nationalist ideas,\u201d says Sarffwraig. \u201cWelsh is ancient, and allows you to connect with the way people were living a really long time ago. It\u2019s unfair that people with conservative politics get to have a monopoly on that culture and history. We\u2019re resisting that.\u201d<\/p>\n Tristwch y Fenywod play Green Man festival in Bannau Brycheiniog, Wales on 14 August; Big City festival in Glasgow on 16 August; Ara Deg festival in Bethesda, Wales on 13 September; Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands on 8 November; and St Matthias Church, London on 14 November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s often dealing with quite elemental things,\u201d says the vocalist Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth of Tristwch y Fenywod\u2019s music.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-325778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114988729523777735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}