Cerys Hafana announces new album, Difrisg

Stephen Price

Singer and composer, Cerys Hafana, has announced the surprise release of latest album, Difrisg, which will be available from tomorrow.

Cerys is a Welsh triple harpist and composer who mangles, mutates and transforms traditional music – and is fast becoming one of Wales’ most captivating, restless and exciting new artists.

Their work is a glorious and limitless mash up of archival material, folk songs and psalms, found sounds and electronic processing, alongside ethereal original compositions.

In something of a detour from past releases, which Cerys has described as ‘Sad Welsh harp pop’, the album will showcase Cerys’ talent on the piano as showcased by April’s lead single, Eiry.

Sharing the news on Instagram, Cerys wrote: “I have an album of piano compositions coming out tomorrow on Instant Karma Classics.

“CDs are available to preorder from my Bandcamp page now, and the album will be available to stream in all the usual places.”

Centre stage 

Previous release, crwydro, showcased more of Cerys’ piano work which was discussed with Nation.Cymru during its release.

Cerys said: “I think I started writing music for the piano before I started writing for the harp.

“I’ve been playing the piano since before I can remember, did all the grades, and studied it at uni for two years in London.

“Despite all this I don’t ever feel particularly comfortable playing the piano live, and obviously it’s nowhere near as niche as the triple harp is.

“I booked a few days at a studio near to where I live last year (Stiwdio Bing), which has a nice piano in it, and unexpectedly spent those few days finishing off all these piano compositions I’d had floating around for years but which I’d never found the time (or the reason) to complete.

“I then decided it would be nice to get them recorded properly, so went to StudiOwz in Pembrokeshire in January to record them on their Bechstein grand.”

Discussing instrument choices in the past, Cerys added: ” I’ve dabbled in various instruments over the years but have been playing harp and piano the longest and they’re the two I actually feel that I can play.

“They’re very similar in lots of ways (the piano is just a sideways harp with hammers) and usually when I’m writing I move between the two and play the same things on both until it becomes clear which one a particular piece belongs on.

“I do go through phases of preferring one over the other – in lots of ways I find the harp less stressful, I think because I haven’t been classically trained on it (which usually seems to succeed in introducing a certain amount of stress into one’s feelings about an instrument), but sometimes I prefer the dynamic range of the piano, and the fact that it’s easier to wallow in.”

Keep up to date with this and future releases and live performances at Cerys’ mailing list, website and Instagram

Purchase Difrisg and other releases from Cerys at Bandcamp.

Live Dates

Cerys has shared details of forthcoming live performances across Wales, England and across the Channel in Europe, details of which can be found below.