Cerys Matthews - Explorer (2011)

"Explorer " is the title of Cerys' fourth solo album and in both choosing and writing the songs she has sub consciously delved into the huge influence of not just all the music she has heard, but the places she has been around the globe, and by the times we live in, but most importantly made an album that over the seven days of recording had no pre determined sound or calculated format.

The journeys start with the songs, from Spain, Scotland, Ireland, America, and Wales and their own migration. "I didn't want to explore so much what makes the songs different from each other, but what they have in common. How, when they are put side by side, they might find a simple common ground that exists despite the characteristics of their land of origin being so diverse. "

Cerys goes on to describe the new songs she has written. " Everyday I sit with my guitar and play music, some of the songs I have collected in my early teens, some just discovered. I wrote the rest of this album inspired by the idea of transience, migration and travel, imagining how people felt on hearing new sounds when first docking in new colonies, the uniqueness of smelling, seeing and of course hearing such strange things for the first time. "

"As I was about to go into the studio I started imagining sounds that might seem initially strange to the songs about to be recorded. Sounds that would in my mind compliment the message of the song, create a feeling that has the essence of where the songs have come from, but also sounds that added the exotic and the new."

TRACKLIST
01. How Can You Say So Little When You Talk So Much
02. Avalanche
03. Who Fears The Garden, Fears Life
04. La Tarara
05. Wade In The Water
06. Galleon
07. Into The Derelict Night
08. Connemara Cradle Song
09. Eneth Gadd Ei Wrthod
10. Fortress Sails
11. Sweet Magnolia
12. Harbwr Corc
13. Ca' The Yowes