Welsh acoustic guitarist
Gwenifer Raymond appeared like an apparition in 2018 with her debut,
You Were Never Much of a Dancer. Its music was steeped in an aggressive form of the American Primitive tradition
John Fahey and peers created during the 1960s from the inspirational spell cast by the dusty 78s of
Mississippi John Hurt,
Skip James,
Dock Boggs, and
Roscoe Holcomb. Obsessed with
Fahey's take on the tradition,
Raymond investigated his sources on her own. She developed a dazzling technical facility harmonically, modally, and rhythmically (the latter influenced no doubt by playing drums in punk bands), and won over critics and fans with a labyrinthian exercise in 21st century American Primitive.
Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain uses all of those influences in a more organic way:
Raymond applies what she's learned to reflect the music, soil, and coastline of her native Cardiff. Opener "Incantation" begins not with her guitar strings but a single drum. Her six-string emerges mysteriously, offering a melody that reflects a dissonant approach to Welsh folk through a slow, expressionistic rag blues; the lower and middle strings offer a droning repetitive flow as the higher strings answer in bluesy counterpoint. "Hell for Certain" commences in folk-blues before
Raymond's intensely rhythmic right-hand fingerpicking is a driving blur. The implied lyric line evokes the feel of Welsh mining songs.
Raymond employs a slide on the droning, minor-key "Worn Out Blues" that weds her take on raga and folk blues; it owes a little to the example of British acoustic guitar pioneer
Davy Graham. "Gwaed Am Gwaed" is Welsh for "blood for blood." The tune's mood reflects imposing dark trees, gothic horror, and the violent bleakness of the coastal weather. These elements charge in together, winding around one another with dissonant overtones and ringing countermelodies. The slow trajectory of "Marseilles Bunkhouse, 3 A.M." crisscrosses raga, parlor music, and spooky Celtic folk. "Eulogy for Dead French Composer" (for
Erik Satie) tracks the composer's gift for restricted harmonic palettes and repetition, while channeling
John Hurt's rangy blues with razor-sharp, chromatic fingerpicking and counterpoint, building to an unruly, flamenco-esque conclusion. The title track closer was named for a UFO sighting near
Raymond's childhood home. The most deliberate piece here, it sounds through-composed with layered and staggered chord voicings, insistent single and double string runs, and ringing drones. Her technique weds striated, carefully plotted dissonance, bluegrass, centuries-old folk tradition, and provocative modern rhythmic syncopation that is as innovative technically as it is emotionally resonant. While
Raymond continues to use American Primitive as a core source of aesthetic and technical inspiration, her music on
Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain grafts on the moods and atmospheres of her Welsh homeland and tradition as she inserts sense-memory impressions from her biography that add meaning to the music. This is a compelling, satisfying, richly musical statement from a gifted player developing a uniquely individual style. Welsh Primitive anyone? ~ Thom Jurek
