Shimli is the follow up to 2020's Dilyn Afon by Welsh folk singer, researcher, grain grower and cultural historian Owen Shiers, aka 'Cynefin'. Continuing in the vein of rooting his music firmly in the customs and cultural vernacular of Ceredigion, the album takes its title from the now obsolete West Walian practice of all night musical and poetic vigils which used to take place in mills and workshops. Drawing inspiration from folk song, the beirdd gwlad (folk poet) tradition – as well as living oral history and story, the album explores the intersection between music, poetry, food and the natural world. A personal dispatch from the struggle to maintain a language, culture and way of life, the album is a musical petition – a stake in the ground for the diverse and the disappearing in our age of homogenisation and mass amnesia.
Shimli is the follow up to 2020's Dilyn Afon by Welsh folk singer, researcher, grain grower and cultural historian Owen Shiers, aka 'Cynefin'. Continuing in the vein of rooting his music firmly in the customs and cultural vernacular of Ceredigion, the album takes its title from the now obsolete West Walian practice of all night musical and poetic vigils which used to take place in mills and workshops. Drawing inspiration from folk song, the beirdd gwlad (folk poet) tradition – as well as living oral history and story, the album explores the intersection between music, poetry, food and the natural world. A personal dispatch from the struggle to maintain a language, culture and way of life, the album is a musical petition – a stake in the ground for the diverse and the disappearing in our age of homogenisation and mass amnesia.
