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Shimli is the follow up to 2020’s Dilyn Afon by Welsh folk singer, researcher, grain grower and cultural historian Owen Shiers, aka ‘Cynefin’. Continuing in the vein of rooting his music firmly in the customs and cultural vernacular of Ceredigion, the album takes its title from the now obsolete West Walian practice of all night musical and poetic vigils which used to take place in mills and workshops. Drawing inspiration from folk song, the beirdd gwlad (folk poet) tradition – as well as living oral history and story, the album explores the intersection between music, poetry, food and the natural world. A personal dispatch from the struggle to maintain a language, culture and way of life, the album is a musical petition – a stake in the ground for the diverse and the disappearing in our age of homogenisation and mass amnesia.

Album Release date: 30/01/25

Shimli yw’r albwm newydd sbon gan y canwr gwerin, ymchwilydd, tyfwr grawn a hanesydd diwylliannol Owen Shiers, sef, Cynefin. Wrth barhau i wreiddio ei gerddoriaeth yn gadarn yn arferion a llen gwerin Ceredigion, mae’r albwm yn cymryd ei theitl o arferiad sydd bellach wedi darfod yng Ngorllewin Cymru o gynnal nosweithiau llawen mewn melinau a gweithdai. Gan dynnu ysbrydoliaeth o ganu gwerin, traddodiad y beirdd gwlad – yn ogystal â straeon a hanes cof byw, mae’r albwm yn archwilio’r groesffordd rhwng cerddoriaeth, barddoniaeth, bwyd a byd natur. Mae’r gwaith yn fryslythyr personol o’r ymdrech i gynnal iaith, diwylliant a ffordd o fyw – deiseb gerddorol sydd yn mynegi llais y i’r amrywiol a’r diflanedig yn ein hoes o homogeneiddio ac lled-amnesia

Dyddiad Rhyddhau’r Albwm: 30/01/25

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Shimli is the follow up to 2020's Dilyn Afon by Welsh folk singer, researcher, grain grower and cultural historian Owen Shiers, aka 'Cynefin'. Continuing in the vein of rooting his music firmly in the customs and cultural vernacular of Ceredigion, the album takes its title from the now obsolete West Walian practice of all night musical and poetic vigils which used to take place in mills and workshops. Drawing inspiration from folk song, the beirdd gwlad (folk poet) tradition – as well as living oral history and story, the album explores the intersection between music, poetry, food and the natural world. A personal dispatch from the struggle to maintain a language, culture and way of life, the album is a musical petition – a stake in the ground for the diverse and the disappearing in our age of homogenisation and mass amnesia.

Shimli yw'r albwm newydd sbon gan y canwr gwerin, ymchwilydd, tyfwr grawn a hanesydd diwylliannol Owen Shiers, sef, Cynefin. Wrth barhau i wreiddio ei gerddoriaeth yn gadarn yn arferion a llen gwerin Ceredigion, mae’r albwm yn cymryd ei theitl o arferiad sydd bellach wedi darfod yng Ngorllewin Cymru o gynnal nosweithiau llawen mewn melinau a gweithdai. Gan dynnu ysbrydoliaeth o ganu gwerin, traddodiad y beirdd gwlad – yn ogystal â straeon a hanes cof byw, mae’r albwm yn archwilio’r groesffordd rhwng cerddoriaeth, barddoniaeth, bwyd a byd natur. Mae’r gwaith yn fryslythyr personol o'r ymdrech i gynnal iaith, diwylliant a ffordd o fyw – deiseb gerddorol sydd yn mynegi llais y i'r amrywiol a'r diflanedig yn ein hoes o homogeneiddio ac lled-amnesia.

Cynefin (pr.‘kuh-neh-vin’) is the musical brainchild of Clettwr Valley native Owen Shiers. Fascinated by music and history, it is a bid to give a voice to an area of his corner of Wales. Starting out from his home village and travelling through the musical landscape of Ceredigion, Owen has unearthed seasoned songs and stories, some never before recorded, and given them new life in the present.

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