Huw M “Gathering Dusk”

Gwymon Records, 2012

The sound of wind chimes in heaven

• “Gathering Dusk’ is a good description for this music; it is redolent of the soft edges of the day, the last flare of the fried egg sun slipping away with the gentle tickle of a balmy cooling breeze. The music glows in subtle tones creating a patchwork of textures, ‘Hide Behind You’ contains traces of Sufjan Stevens at his simplest, plainest, most emotionally naked, in short, most beautiful.

• Huw is Welsh and is related musically to Gorky’s or Super Furry Animals (apologies for obviousness of reference, it is relevant), that canny mix of golden folk with the gentlest psychedelia, the songs sway and glide.  ‘Brechdanau Sgwar’ reveals a full palette of mandolin, cello and French horn all bound together with the natural grace of the wind. ‘Be’ builds out of Beach Boys multi-part harmonies, with banjo, acoustic guitar and vibes, there are no words just the construction of beauty for the sake of it.

  Everything fits together so well that the elements forge something that sounds like an Italian futurist painting. Summer evenings where the smell of flowers blooming always feel like they’ll never end, winter is forgotten and ‘the Perfect Silence’ captures the essence of this. It’s not all about gentle floating atmospheres (though it mostly is) ‘Dyma Lythyr’ is more intrusive with it ricocheting strings and thrusting drums, it disturbs the status quo reminding in joyous fashion of the search for equilibrium. At the end of the evening you need a lullaby and there’s ‘For While I Wait for You to Sleep’ which is a fine way to end a fine record.