Iestyn Tyne shares moving debut album, Carneddi

Stephen Price

Celebrated poet, Iestyn Tyne has shared his debut album of music, ‘Carneddi’ – a response to the circumstances behind one of Wales’ most iconic and devastating images.

‘Carneddi’ is the first solo album from the renowned poet who is also the first person to have won the Urdd Eisteddfod Crown and Chair.

A concept piece, it is written in response to Geoff Charles’ iconic photograph of Carneddog and Catrin Griffith which was taken as they prepared to leave their hill farm above Nantmor in Eryri following the drowning of their son, Hywel Wyn, ruled a suicide.

That image of the elderly couple looking out over the rugged landscape was printed on the front page of Y Cymro under the heading ‘Rwy’n Edrych Dros y Bryniau Pell’, and as a result came to represent more than the sad story of Carneddog and Catrin themselves; the decline and disappearance of a way of life, a minoritised language, and rural Welsh folk culture, as a non-Welsh speaking family from London bought up the land Carneddog and his forebears had farmed for centuries.

Live recording

Recorded live over three days at Stiwdio Sain, Llandwrog, the collection combines fiddle tunes in the Welsh tradition with new compositions, original words and poems written by Carneddog and his contemporaries, hymn tunes and spoken verse.

Iestyn is joined by multitalented musicians Gwilym Bowen Rhys, Gwenan Gibbard and Simmy Singh, with Aled Wyn Hughes as producer.

The powerful cover choice of a photo dear to Tyne was an important element of the project. He shared: I’ve been enchanted and horrified simultaneously by Geoff Charles’ photo of Richard (Carneddog) and Catrin Griffith ever since I first saw it.

“Thanks to the scholarship of people like Dr. Bleddyn Owen Huws and E. Namora Williams, I came to know more and more about the circumstances that led to taking that picture, and the lives of the people framed within it.”

He added: “It’s an iconic image, instantly recognisable to so many, in Welsh-speaking Wales particularly – surpassed only perhaps in the collective imagination by Salem, Curnow Vosper’s painting.

“Many of the older generation have told me that they have the image framed on their walls. It was printed on the front cover of Y Cymro in September 1945, under the heading ‘Rwy’n edrych dros y bryniau pell’, taken from Williams Pantycelyn’s hymn.

“Because of the cruelty of Carneddog and Catrin’s fate, and the transferral of Carneddi into the hands of non-Welsh speaking buyers from London, the story became a sign and a symbol of changing times, and mostly loss: loss of language, loss of culture, loss of tradition.”

Concept

There are three ‘movements’ to the collection – one which places us around Nantmor and Beddgelert, experimenting with creating a sense of place; the second in response to the tragic loss of Hywel Wyn (Carneddog and Catrin’s son), and the third takes place as Carneddog and Catrin prepare to leave all that they have known and loved, being unable to cope with running the farm by themselves in old age.

Iestyn told Nation.Cymru: “I’ve been brought up in the Welsh fiddle tradition, so fiddle music – very old, traditional tunes, and my own contemporary compositions – takes up a lot of space on the album.

“So many of the old airs have the names of places, and so are connected to particular parts of the landscape, places that Carneddog and his contemporaries would have known and had their own relationships with.

“Carneddog was a writer, a poet, a journalist and an antiquarian; the epitome of the non-college educated, cultured individual, juggling publishing and writing for the newspapers with the harsh realities of managing a small hill farm on poor land in Eryri.

“So poetry features heavily – from poems by Gwallter Llyfni, a friend and contemporary of Carneddog, that I’ve set to music, to my own cywyddau, tribannau and tri-thrawiadau.

“I’ve also included an englyn by Carneddog himself, written as he looked out (unknowingly) from the front door of his house over his last haymaking season at Carneddi.”

Many well known faces from the Welsh music scene feature heavily on the album, which was also a natural choice for Tyne. He said: “I’d worked with Aled on an album with my band, Patrobas, several years back; he’s really experienced, very laid back and a good presence to have in the studio.

“He’s worked on some folk albums I really rate, so I knew he’d get my vision from the outset. I had a very clear idea of how I wanted things to be in the studio – sparse, live, with as little overdubbing and tweaking as possible.

“We’ve left a lot of little ‘imperfections’ in, which hopefully makes for an honest and intimate listening experience. A lot of the album is about fragility, and loss, so that seems to be apt.

“Gwilym, Simmy and Gwenan take the whole thing to another level with their musicianship and sensitivity; we’d run every track a few times, and as soon as we were reasonably comfortable we’d go for a few takes.

“The whole thing was recorded, mixed and mastered within two and a half days at Sain studios, Llandwrog.”

Iestyn is currently working on the details of an upcoming tour, and shared: “The first public performance of the album will be in Ty Gwerin at the National Eisteddfod; Monday 4 August at 19:45.

“Following that I’ll be on a mini tour in September, starting at the National Library in Aberystwyth on 9 August.

“All the dates for this will be released soon, and the tour coincides with exactly 80 years to the week the photograph was taken back in 1945.”

‘Carneddi’ is available on all streaming platforms including Spotify via Recordiau Cadnant.

A limited edition picture disc CD is also available via Bandcamp.

Follow Iestyn on Instagram for live performance details and more.