AC Lavender presents

Canol Y Galon

The South Wales valleys were the centre of AC Lavender's life until they moved away at eighteen, and are skirted by the Heart of Wales train line. Despite its name, the line wasn't accessible to them growing up due to poor transport links.This project is their new imagined line, combining historic train routes with idealised transport links based on childhood memories. In turn, nostalgia is linked with present experienced on a fantastical journey.

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A New Welsh Line

Canol Y Galon explores themes of nostalgia, futurism, hauntology, memories, and Cymreig culture through a concept album about an imagined train journey.A working title for the project was “The New Welsh Line”, and while the title changed, the overarching concept remains the same: a piece for each station on an idealised train line, taking the listener on a journey through places the composer grew up, visited, and studied at, from Ystradgylais, through Castell-nedd, to Y Mwmbwls.Image adapted from a map licenced by OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap® is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF).

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Inspirations and Aims

Combining the artist's established neoclassical and folk styles with explorations in chiptune and vocal synthesis, Canol Y Galon bridges the gap between the fictional worlds they would escape to and a utopian Cymreig future.Traditional Cymreig folk melodies are interpolated, a Cymraeg-language UTAU performs, and childhood home videos are sampled. With inspiration taken from artists such as Lena Raine, Porter Robinson, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Gruff Rhys, the album was a challenging and enriching experience to create.

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