Welsh quartet’s album celebrates ‘Land of Song’ heritage

A new Welsh string quartet album celebrating Welsh musical heritage will bring together contemporary compositions and reimagined folk traditions. 

Gwlad y Gân draws together works on the theme of Land of Song, including a new commission by north Wales-based composer Cameron Biles-Liddell, the first recording of Huw Watkins’s String Quartet No. 1, and a trio of pieces by the quartet themselves, inspired by traditional Welsh folk tunes, Am Awen.

Quartet Draig toured the programme in north Wales in November 2024, before recording at Tŷ Cerdd Studios in April 2025.

The quartet’s cellist, Tabitha Selley, said: “We are so excited for the release of Gwlad y Gân and to see the result of the months of work spent bringing this project to light. It began following a discussion with composer Cameron Biles-Liddell, who wanted to write another string quartet, and, as a fellow Wales-based musician, was keen to work with us.

“We talked about exploring and celebrating the theme of heritage in Wales, encompassing landscape, imagery and song, and we also decided that combining works by Welsh and English composers to celebrate their complementary musical output would be an important element of the project.

“We had been listening to Huw Watkins’s chamber works and, upon discovering that his first String Quartet had never been recorded, thought it would be wonderful to include as a representation of Welsh composers’ contributions to chamber music. We hear a real similarity between the last movement of Huw’s piece and Cameron’s piece; the constant pulse running throughout evokes the feeling of a journey across land.

“We also fell in love with the dark but rich soundworld, impressionistic elements and luscious harmonies of Imogen Holst’s Phantasy Quartet and, looking back at other repertoire we have enjoyed playing, thought Frank Bridge’s Three Idylls would pair marvellously with it.

“The set of songs from our collection Am Awen have been written over a few years – some written together and some written by a single member of the quartet – but all of them were developed together when playing and improvising! This work takes Welsh folk tunes and stretches them out, reworks them and sometimes completely reimagines them into full-length pieces.

“The final piece is our own arrangement of Dilys Elwyn-Edwards beautiful original song, Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr, and we chose to leave the ending harmonically unresolved, letting it trail off into the distance, as if riding on a wave.

“We can’t wait to hear people’s impressions of the album and are so excited for the launch concert, when we’ll play these amazing pieces once again, hear from the composers themselves and chat to everyone about the passionate music-making happening in Wales. We hope to see you there!”

Gwlad y Gân is out on Tŷ Cerdd’s Sionci label on Friday 24 April 2026 and will be available to stream on all major platforms. The album launch concert will take place on Tuesday 28 April 2026 at Jacob’s Antiques Centre, Cardiff (tickets available via Skiddle).