(2021) Cerys Matthews - We Come From The Sun


Review:
Musician and DJ Cerys Matthews has today released We Come from the Sun (on Decca Records). The album is composed by Cerys Matthews with Hidden Orchestra and features 10 UK poets: MA.MOYO, Raymond Antrobus, Lemn Sissay, Liz Berry, Anthony Anaxagorou, Adam Horovitz, Cia Mangat, Imtiaz Dharker, Kim Moore and Kayo Chingonyi. You may recall the Poetry & Lyrics festival which was launched in 2016 at London’s Kings Place celebrating the inexorable link between music and verse from poetry curators Poet in the City. The opening act was Cerys Matthews, an advocate of the spoken word, who was joined by poet Liz Berry (who joins her again on this album) and lyricist Don Black. This is clearly an evolving journey for her. In February 2020 Abbey Road studios welcomed each of the 10 poets to record pieces from their collections. Then lock down hi. But remotely and with the additional help of field recordists and musicians around the world, Cerys and Joe Acheson (Hidden Orchestra) created a sound journey for these poems with the theme of: Genesis: Birth, heritage, a journey about to begin. Cerys says; “I’ve always been in awe of the power of a great turn of phrase; in poems, songs and prose. There are some exceptional poems being added to the world right now.“So I invited poets whose work I admired and had championed for years to join me in this project. I selected poems which worked across and with each other to become a journey, an aural adventure. “I’m hoping it’ll be the first in a series of ‘poem song’ albums on Decca, with life on earth as inspiration. As simple and complex as that. “The theme for this then, as the first, had to begin at the beginning: Genesis”.





Tracklist:
1. Ma.Moyo – Flame Lily [03:33]
2. Raymond Antrobus – Happy Birthday Moon [02:13]
3. Lemn Sissay – Adventure Flight [03:07]
4. Cia Mangat – She Strikes The Ball Like a Match [01:39]
5. Anthony Anaxagorou – Once I Had an Acceptance Speech [03:27]
6. Kim Moore – And the Soul [02:15]
7. Liz Berry – Connemara [02:42]
8. Adam Horovitz – A House Built From Cloth [02:01]
9. Kayo Chingonyi – Loch Long by Ardgartan, Argyll [02:23]
10. Imtiaz Dharker – The Trick [02:51]
11. Liz Berry – Birmingham Roller [03:11]
12. Kim Moore – Sometimes You Think of Bowness [02:43]


Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits