Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita

CatrinFinch Seckou Keita credit Andy Morgan 1

Photo: Andy Morgan

It’s been an amazing couple of years for Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita. Announced winners of Best Cross-Cultural Collaboration in the Songlines Magazine Music Awards 2014, winners of the prestigious fRoots Critics Poll Album Of The Year for their debut album Clychau Dibon, nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (Best Duo and Best Traditional Track), and featured in Songlines Magazine top ten albums of 2013, the sky is indeed the limit for this fearless pair of virtuoso musicians whose ‘heavenly music…intricately realised’ (Songlines Magazine) and infectious onstage chemistry defies categorisation and continues to merge the boundaries between the genres of classical, world, folk and traditional music.
Hot on the heels of her innovative collaborations with Cimarron from Colombia and Toumani Diabate from Mali, Catrin Finch is once again proving her radical and adventurous musical spirit with this wedding of Welsh and West African musical culture. Seckou Keita is a member of the renowned Cissokho clan of ‘griots’ or bards from southern Senegal who has already blended his kora (21-stringed West African harp) with jazz, funk, rock, Indian classical and all manner of other musical styles.

Their debut album Clychau Dibon has attracted huge critical acclaim and a clutch of 4 and 5 * reviews from National and Industry press with UNCUT Magazine’s Neil Spencer describing it as “intricate, ethereal and entrancing, an elaborate pas-de-deux… remarkable” *****, “ a sublime duo of two artists who are masters of their instruments…musicality and architecture at work” Simon Broughton, London Evening Standard ***** , and ‘remarkable…an elegant, gently exquisite set”, Robin Denselow, The Guardian ****
Don’t miss your chance to see one of the most blissful and exciting music collaborations ever to come out of Wales.

Mae fe wedi bod yn flwyddyn ryfeddol i’r delynores Gymreig, Catrin Finch, a’r chwaraewr kora o Senegal, Seckou Keita. Enillwyr Albwm y Flwyddyn fRoots gyda’u halbwm cyntaf Clychau Dibon, wedi eu henwebu am ddwy Wobr Werin BBC Radio 2 am y Deuawd Gorau a Thrac Traddodiadol Gorau, ac wedi eu cynnwys ymhlith deg albwm gorau 2013 Cylchgrawn Songlines, nid oes terfyn ar orchestion y pâr hyderus hwn o gerddorion meistrolgar y mae eu ‘cerddoriaeth nefolaidd…wedi ei gwireddu’n gelfydd’ (Cylchgrawn Songlines) a’u perthynas llwyfan amlwg yn herio cael ei chategoreiddio gan barhau i mewnffrwydro / uno ffiniau rhwng arddulliau cerddoriaeth glasurol, byd, gwerin a thraddodiadol.

Yn dynn ar sodlau ei chydweithrediadau dyfeisgar gyda Cimarron o Golombia a Toumani Diabate o Fali, mae Catrin Finch unwaith eto yn amlygu ei hysbryd cerddorol radical ac anturiaethus yn yr undod hwn o ddiwylliannau cerddorol Cymreig a Gorllewin Affricanaidd. Mae Seckou Keita yn aelod o dylwyth enwog o ‘grigots’ y Cissokho o Dde Senegal, sydd eisoes wedi asio ei kora ( telyn 21 tant Gorllewin Affrica) â jazz, ffync, roc, cerddoriaeth glasurol India a phob math o arddulliau cerddorol eraill.

Yn 2014 byddant yn ymddangos fel gwesteion ynghyd ag Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray a Chris Wood yn nathliadau pen-blwydd fRoots yn 35 mlwydd oed yn Neuadd y Frenhines Elisabeth ar Southbank Llundain ym mis Mawrth, cyn cychwyn ar daith fawr o Brydain ym mis Mai bydd yn cynnwys ymweld â Neuadd Usher yng Nghaeredin, Neuadd Bush yn Llundain a’r Sage Gateshead cyn dechrau ar y sîn gwyliau haf yn y DU a thramor. Mae eu halbwm cyntaf wedi denu canmoliaeth feirniadol fawr a llu o adolygiadau 4* a 5* o’r cyfryngau Cenedlaethol a Diwydiant gyda Neil Spencer o’r cylchgrawn UNCUT yn ei ddisgrifio fel ““intricate, ethereal and entrancing, an elaborate pas-de-deux… remarkable” *****, “ a sublime duo of two artists who are masters of their instruments…musicality and architecture at work” Simon Broughton, London Evening Standard ***** , and ‘remarkable…an elegant, gently exquisite set”. Robin Denselow, The Guardian ****
Peidiwch â cholli’ch cyfle i weld un o gydweithrediadau mwyaf dedwydd a chyffrous erioed i ddod o Gymru.