Welsh folk favourites Elin & Carys ready new album

Stephen Price

Montgomeryshire born sisters’ Elin & Carys share their new single today, ahead of a new collection of folk melodies and original compositions reflecting on ancient rural, local traditions.

Over the last couple of years Elin & Carys, two sisters from mid Wales, has been a new and exiting act on the Welsh folk scene, and their new EP by Elin & Carys due for release on 24 April includes new and alternative arrangements of traditional Welsh songs and original music.

Having won the Brwydr y Bandiau Gwerin (Battle of the Folk Bands) competition at the National Eisteddfod at Wrexham last year and featuring on the compilation album ‘Stafell Sbâr Sain: Tŷ Gwerin’, released by Sain in 2025, more invitations came to perform live, at festivals such as Green Man and Fire in the Mountain and to support established acts such as Gwilym Bowen Rhys, Al Lewis and Vri.

With their blend of original music and new arrangements of old Welsh folk songs they bring a new and welcomed sound to the Welsh music scene.

Born into a musical family and raised near Meifod, Montgomeryshire, their father was a member of legendary folk group Plethyn and their mother is also a strong musical influence. Both sisters fondly remember that singing with their parents in the car and in the kitchen, in four part harmony, was a big part of their childhood.

Although Carys went on to study classical music, concentrating on the flute, and Elin to study Fine Art, they both returned to their first love, Welsh traditional music.

Between them, they play a variety of instruments, including the guitar, banjo, flute, whistles and accordion, each instrument weaving naturally between their blended voices.

The stories and the words of the songs are vitally important to them both and their originally composed music is deeply rooted in their home area of Maldwyn, with nature and the landscape a constant inspiration.

The EP includes songs that they have been performing over the last year and songs which are deeply connected to rural and local folk traditions, such as the EP’s title track, ‘Hela’r Dryw’ (Hunting the Wren), an old folk song, rooted in an ancient Celtic tradition which was a midwinter custom, a song which was a catalyst for connecting both sisters more deeply to place, history and their local community in Montgomeryshire.

The ‘wren boys’ would hunt a wren and carry it from house to house, singing and playing music while wishing good luck to all in the neighbourhood in exchange for food and drink. ‘Y Gog Lwydlas’ is one of many songs in the Welsh tradition celebrating the appearance of the cuckoo in spring, this version with subtle instrumental links between the verses standing out as yet again another variant of this body of cuckoo songs, while ‘Cariad Cyntaf’ is a beloved and haunting Welsh traditional love song, full of unanswered questions.

The last track ‘Dod Nôl at fy Nghoed’ is a dedication to the feeling of home and being inter-connected with nature and the special energy that woodlands hold, and how it can make us all feel grounded and secure. The improvised feel and nature of this track is a reminder of Elin and Carys’ live performances, their playing deeply locked in with each other.

“The whole process of what we’re doing as Elin and Carys feels like coming home”, says the sisters, “…playing Welsh folk music together feels like we’ve found something we were always meant to come back to.”

With guest musicians Freddie Willetts on double bass, bodhran, electric guitar and whistles, Awen Blandford on cello, Gwilym Bowen Rhys on fiddle and viola and produced by Aled Wyn Hughes and recorded at Stiwdio Sain, this EP is a bold and fresh contribution to the Welsh music scene, and EP brimming with and alternative ambience yet sounding so comforting and homely at the same time.

A video of single ‘Hela’r Dryw’ was released today (Monday, April 13) and there will be a first play of the track on the Rhys Mwyn show on BBC Radio Cymru this evening.

Pre-order Hela’r Drwy direct from Sain ahead of its release on 24 April.