"One of the more unexpected musical evolutions in recent years has been that of Hen Ogledd from the group's origins as a side project for harpist Rhodri Davies and singer-guitarist Richard Dawson. The knotty, writhing improvisations of the pair's 2013 album Dawson-Davies: Hen Ogledd were like wrestling a piglet in a barbed wire jacket, but with the addition of multi-instrumentalists Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington, by the time of 2018's Mogic, Hen Ogledd had become a bold, poppy but still defiantly experimental quartet."
"With Dawson now on bass, Davies's electrified strings remained a bubbling, gravelly sonic wellspring around which their musical horizons expanded. Veering between crisply crafted songs such as "Problem Child" and looser-limbed jams, with lyrics tackling human connection in the digital age, Mogic was inspired but scrappy, as colourfully creative yet jokily deflecting as the appliqué capes each member sported in its videos."
"If anything, its 2020 sequel Free Humans was too consistent, leaning heavily on neon electropop to tackle the frailties of the heart across a timespan ranging from medieval gossip to future space exploration. But with Discombobulated, Hen Ogledd have grown to fully inhabit their costumes, Sun Ra Arkestra style, with the greatest musical and lyrical realisation yet of their diverse strengths."
"Hen Ogledd is Welsh for Old North, and refers to an early medieval region spanning the north of Wales, northern England and southern Scotland. At the fringes of Roman influence and where Brythonic languages - forebears of Welsh, Cornish and Breton - were spoken, the area includes the birthplaces of all four members, highlighting a kinship between parts of the UK often overlooked in Londoncentric narratives."
Hen Ogledd began as a side project for harpist Rhodri Davies and singer-guitarist Richard Dawson, rooted in knotty, writhing improvisation on 2013's Dawson-Davies: Hen Ogledd. The addition of multi-instrumentalists Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington transformed the group by 2018's Mogic into a bold, poppy yet defiantly experimental quartet, with Dawson on bass and Davies's electrified strings central to their sound. Mogic blended crafted songs and loose jams addressing human connection in the digital age, while 2020's Free Humans leaned toward neon electropop. Discombobulated finds the group fully inhabiting theatrical costumes and fusing landscape, folklore, dissent and personal struggle.
Read at The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music
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