9Bach - Anian (2016) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

New album Anian is a soulful, brooding record whose songs take a critical look at the world in which we live. While Tincian commemorated stories from the past, Anian explores more contemporary themes.
Anian: Welsh word meaning nature, the natural order, natural morality, the natural world, creation. What you are made of, your soul and bones, and how you connect with other people.
Music is made for crossing national borders. Written and sung in Welsh (Cymraeg), recorded in England, Anian is 9Bach’s third album. Like 2014’s Tincian - it begins in North Wales but broadens out through Greek and Near Eastern influences into an emotional tour de force. Angry, sad, but most of all passionate at the state of the world, Anian taps into a universal language.
While Tincian was very much rooted in hiraeth, the scarred past of the mountainous mining landscape of the Ogwen Valley, North Wales, Anian looks outwards into the present. As singer, composer and pianist Lisa Jên explains, it comes from a desperate, anarchic place. “It marks where I’m at, whether it’s my age, being a mother, or simply being much more exposed to social media where I’m faced with pictures and videos, images and words which I find difficult to cope with right now.”
The eleven songs move from the rolling rhythms of ‘Llyn Du’ to the piano settings of ‘Ifan’ and ‘Deryn’, the layered voices of ‘Brain’ and ‘Si Hwi Hwi’ to the full band Near Eastern climax of ‘Cyfaddefa’. At the centre is always Lisa Jên’s voice, and the instinctive way in which 9Bach work together. “The songs alway start with the vocal melody,” says Martin Hoyland. “Then it’s my job to build the instrumentation and arrangements around that, and to compliment it as much as possible.”
Appearances are deceptive. Beneath the crystalline surface of Anian lie raging emotions. “I can’t write a song about nothing," stresses Lisa. “It has to have a heartbeat. I am trying to challenge the listener, whether it’s making them feel left out because they don’t have a crow that brings them gifts, or scowling at them for killing the last living white rhino. Metaphorically blaming humans for being horrible”.