{"title":"Gwenifer Raymond","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGwenifer Raymond is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist hailing from Cardiff, now based in Brighton, England. With her impressive range of musical talents, she has become a respected figure in the music industry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer unique style draws inspiration from various genres such as folk, blues, and American primitive guitar. Influenced by artists like Glenn Jones, Jack Rose, and Bill MacKay among others; Gwenifer's compositions are both captivating and soul-stirring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhether it's her intricate fingerpicking or haunting melodies, *Gwenifer Raymond* has the ability to transport listeners to another time and place with her enchanting performances.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"strange-lights-over-garth-mountain","title":"Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain","description":"\u003cp\u003eWelsh musician Gwenifer Raymond’s 2018 debut album, \u003ci\u003eYou Never Were Much of a Dancer\u003c\/i\u003e, introduced a new voice on acoustic guitar, receiving 5 stars in The Guardian, big spreads in Mojo and Uncut, and airplay on multiple BBC programmes. This led to months of touring on the European festival circuit. Her latest, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, finds Raymond ranging into unexplored experimental territory, drawing from her Welsh roots.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn her own words: My new album, \u003ci\u003eStrange Lights Over Garth Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, has eight songs in it. All were recorded in a basement flat in central Brighton, locked-down amidst a global pandemic. I recorded them myself and neither I, nor any of the songs saw said outbreak coming. Coronavirus may have dictated the circumstance under which the album was recorded but it did not otherwise inform any of the compositions that run through it; like I said, we didn't see it coming. Growing up in Wales was not a theme strongly present in my first record (perhaps not too surprising in an album of 'American Primitive'), but I feel as though my memories of that time have started to insinuate themselves in the tunes here. In my opinion, landscape does a lot to shape a community's folk music; from my childhood I recall tall, spooky trees, black against the grey sky, breath misting in cold air, and I have tried to take something of Welsh folk horror to make my own 'Welsh Primitive'. Whilst this isn't the only theme present in the album, childhood memories do form the background for a couple of tracks: coal trains steaming along the foot of our garden, rattling the glasses on the kitchen table; and the titular \u003ci\u003eStrange Lights...\u003c\/i\u003e dancing above the peak of the mountain which loomed over the house where I grew up. Dead men also feature prominently, as well as personal tragedies and the madness of touring. It's possible this album is leaning more into the left-field than the first - the songs are longer and more 'compositional' for lack of a better word, rather than deriving so heavily from the folk and blues traditions, though, they're still there - all of those dead men are hard to shake. Some parts go fast and others go slow. Sometimes I play more aggressively than I intend to and other times I play exactly as aggressively as I intend to. I still say it's punk music and I have no idea what key the last tune is in. For Erik Satie, Master Wilburn Burchette, and Ruben the dog.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tompkins Square","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50504376156491,"sku":"1103089","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2b1e9bf7-a849-4e49-a1f6-4b20c0f2bf08_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727804584"},{"product_id":"last-night-i-heard-the-dog-star-bark","title":"Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark","description":"\u003cp\u003eLast Night I Heard the Dogstar Bark is a line from Grant Morrison’s \u003cem\u003eThe Invisibles\u003c\/em\u003e, spoken by Tom O’Bedlam; a half-mad hobo occultist who sees holy words reflected in the wet cement of the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMy last album was recorded and released mid-lockdown during a global pandemic; Since then the world seems to have been taking on an increasingly surrealistic tilt, and ol’ Tom makes more and more sense.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn some ways the album is split down the middle: I’ve been playing in that folk-horror style for a while, and that’s still there (\"\u003cem\u003edream-making birds\u003c\/em\u003e\" from the Mabinogion and the worst night of a rabbit’s life, etc.), but also it’s moving on to dally with science-fiction and esoterica (meditations on the set-theory afterlife, and pioneering rocket scientist-cum-Thelemite Jack Parsons, etc.).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAround the time a lot of those were written I was reading a lot of pulpy science and strange fiction - by coincidence several that dealt with various ideas surrounding the concept of infinity. And so the album enters from the cosmic void and exits through the galactic plane.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eI’ve always felt a strong pull to the world of the weird, and I don’t think there’s a lot weirder than infinity: the product of a division by zero. Something that compels me about experimental and instrumental music has always been its ability to give form to the otherwise inarticulable. But I also believe talking about the meaning of it all sort of ruins the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo I think about Tom O’Bedlam, who could either be a prophet or a madman. But if it sounds good who cares, we all get divided by zero eventually anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"We Are Busy Bodies","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":51962470662475,"sku":"R1477-4057","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51962470695243,"sku":"R1477-6617","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/unnamed-2025-06-05T094726.793_c3a89583-14e3-47f2-bcb8-0519f5daac8c.jpg?v=1752262922"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_bf988129_thumbnail_4096_c5b67625-3b3d-41a5-8219-1201fe0baa8f.jpg?v=1727804565","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/gwenifer-raymond.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}