Premiering at Llais festival 2024, Llwch a Llechi [Dust and Slate] by composer and multidisciplinary artist Gwen Siôn is a fusion of electronic music, environmental recordings, orchestral instrumentation and voices exploring connections between music, landscape, tradition and ritual.
Llwch a Llechi will be performed live by 10 BBC National Orchestra of Wales musicians, one of Wales’ oldest choirs - Côr y Penrhyn (a community group originally formed as a slate quarrymen’s choir for workers at Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda), and Gwen on live electronics using her own hand-built instruments made from site-specific recycled natural materials (including slate, oak and yew).
Llwch a Llechi takes inspiration from socio-political histories, industrial heritage, folklore motifs and the cultural relationship that exists between music and landscape, and its deeper roots in Celtic oral tradition in Wales.
This brand new audio-visual project combines elements of experimental electronic music, contemporary orchestral composition, choral composition (specifically informed by North Wales’ working-class tradition of quarrymen’s choirs), field recordings and archive footage (provided by the Screen and Sound Archive, National Library of Wales) to create a unique and engaging live performance piece.
13 October 3.30pm Wales Millennium Centre