Ar hyn of bryd mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
Ar hyn of bryd mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
Ar hyn of bryd mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
hyrwyddo a dathlu cerddoriaeth Cymru
promoting and celebrating the music of Wales
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7. The legacies
The Horizons partnership
One of the outcomes of Wales hosting WOMEX was the creation of the Horizons partnership, set up in order to embrace the other home nations. It was described in the WOMEX Guide as being: a new joint project by the leading arts and music organisations of Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to best represent their music professionals and artists at WOMEX. Since its formation in 2013, British Underground has managed the collaborative Horizons presence on behalf of all the partners.
Ben Mandelson is credited with coming up with the name following lengthy discussions “to find something that was open, inclusive, poetic, and not really nationalist or political, so we talked a lot about it.” The word ‘Horizons’ comes from the lines of the poem embedded on the front of Wales Millennium Centre by the country’s inaugural national poet, Gwyneth Lewis: ‘Creu gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen [Creating truth like glass from inspiration’s furnace] / In these stones horizons sing. “It just felt so appropriate to say, the horizons are singing, the horizons are open for us,” says Mandelson. “It just felt like a very poetic and inclusive thing.” In the 2013 WOMEX Guide, Hâf explained why Lewis’s words were so significant: “Gwyneth’s words attest a new confidence here in our arts and cultural identity blossoming in a devolved nation.” For Mandelson the creation of the partnership was a very special thing: “I think Horizons is one of those legacy gems,” he says. “And it’s lasted as we’ve got the Horizons stands and Horizons activity this year at WOMEX in A Coruña, so it’s been a real success.”
“The Horizons partnership has really served us well,” agrees Hâf, although acknowledging that it’s not been without its challenges and tensions over the years. But as Hâf concedes: “In essence, I think it’s been a really great model that we should be working and celebrating more.” Especially now, post-Brexit, Horizons feels even more relevant and significant as the UK repositions itself within Europe.
The Horizons Tour
One of the most ambitious side projects associated with WOMEX in Cardiff was the Horizons Gorwelion Tour, co-produced by Creu Cymru and Mwldan, in association with Cerdd Cymru: Music Wales.
As one of the few regular Welsh WOMEX attendees, although not officially involved in the Cardiff bid, Mwldan’s Davies was particularly keen to engage local audiences with WOMEX. “Every WOMEX that I’ve been to, the circus comes to town and it goes away again. And there’s no public interface whatsoever. It’s just like an industry event. And all these artists come into town, and they all go away again, so wouldn’t it be great if we actually got some of these people out into the country, into proper gigs?”
As Davies explains, there was also the added financial incentive for the artists, who weren’t paid to showcase. Plus it would involve them engaging with proper audiences rather than just with industry folk. And of course, Welsh audiences benefitting from top international artists who were already in the country for WOMEX.
The idea for the tour was mooted, and resulted in a successful bid to the Arts Council. Then Mwldan got tasked with co-producing and marketing the whole thing. It was, Davies concedes, a mammoth undertaking: 16 gigs in just four days at 16 venues all over Wales, with four Welsh bands partnered together with four international bands who were showcasing in Cardiff. An ingenious, albeit logistically challenging idea.
The tour featured ALAW with Ebo Taylor from Ghana, Peru’s Cumbia All Stars with DnA, Ghazalaw with Ballet Nimba, and DR Congo’s Les Tambours de Brazza alongside 9Bach.
Deborah Keyser (now with Tŷ Cerdd) was at the time working with Creu Cymru, the development agency for theatres and arts centres in Wales, who were also involved in the tour. Like Davies, she believed it was important to have a legacy from the event in Cardiff that was felt beyond the capital. “The thing we’re always trying to do in Wales is to be not just Cardiff focused; it was about sharing the love for something that was coming to Cardiff and making sure that it touched all parts of the nation. I’d say that there were a number of objectives. Certainly one of them was to give artists a platform and not only to give them a show and get them to an audience, but also to give them a trajectory towards that show and to have some development around it.”
As Keyser points out, there was a big programme of artist development leading up to WOMEX in Cardiff, largely mentoring for artists but also support and mentoring for agents and managers. “I guess some of the things that happened afterwards meant that the best impact was not had. The Welsh Music Foundation was cancelled by the government [in 2014, just six months after WOMEX], which took the rug out from some of that development work.”
As part of the Horizons Tour, 9Bach were paired up with the high energy dance band from DR Congo, Les Tambours de Brazza. Founding member and guitarist Martin Hoyland smiles when he recalls the experience: “It was great to tour with such a different band and it was a brilliant idea,” he says, although adds that on the whole the number of punters was disappointing. “Maybe some of the others were a lot better attended than the ones we did, but our experience was low attendance.”
9Bach’s singer Lisa Jên Brown agrees and admits that being Welsh, they felt partly responsible for the low turnout. “There was just an awareness on our behalf that it was a shame,” she says. When Davies now reflects back on the Horizons tour, he concedes that it had mixed success, with some places faring better than others. “In the end, you’re putting world music acts into venues where audiences were not necessarily developed to take them. We did go quite off-piste with some of the venues!” These included the Blackwood Miners Institute, the Welfare in Ystradgynlais, Powys, up to the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead. “I don’t think it’s ever happened again, anywhere to the best of my knowledge!”
WOMEX, Welsh & indigenous languages
One of the more unexpected results of WOMEX coming to Wales was a shift in attitude towards indigenous languages. As Mandelson says, WOMEX had had conference sessions on the subject of indigeneity and language in earlier editions, but what struck him was how Wales positioned themselves within this whole debate. “The Welsh see themselves as part of a platform of people who have indigenous rights, claims and issues and that’s really important.”
Welsh (or Cymraeg) is the most widely spoken Celtic language, and one of Europe’s oldest living languages. It’s currently spoken by around half a million people, with the Welsh government planning on reaching a target of one million speakers by 2050. As Hâf recalls, prior to Cardiff, WOMEX had only ever worked with host countries in English, which, as she explained, just wasn’t going to work in Wales. “We can’t do that in Wales; we have a legislative duty to do everything in Welsh. So apart from the WOMEX Guide, everything else was in Welsh as well, which was a bit of a surprise to everybody.”
Hâf says this led to a confidence for them to talk to other people about why they were doing this. “We hadn’t done it before, so the more you do it, the more confident you get and the more you meet other people who want to be doing the same things.” Ten years on and this enhanced confidence in their identity and language has clearly influenced the work being done with UNESCO and the UN as part of the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).
Gwyneth’s words attest a new confidence here in our arts and cultural identity blossoming in a devolved nation.
Intrinsically linked to the Welsh identity, Hâf reflects on how much things have changed in Wales with regards to its language and how they use it: “Using the name ‘Cymru’ is what we do now, like the Welsh Government, the Welsh football team, even the rugby team are doing it this year, so it’s all changed.”
One of the pivotal figures in the fight for the Welsh language has been the Welsh singer-songwriter and co-founder of Sain Records, Dafydd Iwan, who celebrated his 80th birthday this August. He attended WOMEX in Cardiff and was part of a conference session along with Lou Bennett from Black Arm Band called World Music, Diversity and Democracy: the role of the song in challenging oppression. Hâf particularly remembers Iwan giving this quote about the English oppression of Wales: “For stealing a sheep from the mountain, you were deported to Australia, but for stealing the mountain, you were given a mansion to live in.”
Now, ten years on, Iwan is still making headlines, thanks to his iconic ballad ‘Yma o Hyd’ (Still Here), a song about the survival of Welsh language and culture against the odds over the centuries of English domination. First recorded 40 years ago, it was written in response to the 1979 independence defeat, and its lyrics reference Thatcher and the closure of coal mines and has all the ingredients of a classic protest song. It was re-recorded last year featuring the voices of 60 thousand Welsh football supporters singing along and as a result it became the official Welsh song of the Welsh football team during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. “It felt like it was literally the nation singing!” says Hâf. “Football has been really, really important to all this sense of awakening and confidence.”
This year at WOMEX in A Coruña, Hâf will chair a session called Exploring Indigenous Languages: creating meaningful spaces for indigenous languages on world stages, and since the event in Cardiff, WOMEX now hosts the annual gathering of the Pan Indigenous Languages Network. “WOMEX is brilliant because the EU show up, Creative Europe are there, you’ve got the UNESCO representation… It is like a mini United Nations – there isn’t another event like it. And I love that.”