Text: Mikko Polus
Awenydd is a fairly young Dutch project that, at least to my understanding, tries to operate outside the online realm by keeping their material’s digital presence to a minimum and rather distribute it by trading and sending out DIY tapes. Alongside self-published releases, the project has had (mainly tape) releases on a bunch of labels too, like Fusty Cunt, Satatuhatta, and Absurd Exposition.
This tape, which I received from the artist through trading, was published by the British label Outsider Art in early 2025. All of the tape’s tracks are untitled, and its black & white artwork is mainly abstract – although you can spot the project’s logo on the cover if you know to look for it. Aside of that, you’re greeted only by four short phrases: no overdubs – no ego – no purpose – forever dreaming.
The tape’s opener pairs abstract decayed rumbling with sparsely played warbling piano notes and heavily flanged but somewhat quiet vocals. While those elements might not look that original or exciting when written as a list like this, they’re used to a great effect here. The A-side grows more noisy over time but doesn’t lose its eerie feel, with the harsher analog screeches being accompanied by dust-coated ambience that sounds like it’s played too slowly and with a malfunctioning record player.
In part, the strong overall effect must be due to the recording having been made without overdubs, so the sounds bleed into each other and feed each other. The mysterious atmosphere creeps into each sound and swallows them into itself, so although the soundscape is quite rich, it’s all painted over with the same color palette. That might sound like a criticism, but I mean it as praise: the tape creates a very captivating atmosphere, but does so while offering tasty sounds and details as well.
The tape comprises of nine tracks, but they flow from one to another so smoothly that I more or less regarded each side as a singular track. That said, while the tape creates a coherent and atmospheric effect, it also knows how to keep up tension and variation, and makes sure to let more distinct sounds creep through the more shapeless rumbling. This fluidity could also be brought up when trying to place a specific genre label on the material, as in parts it could be described as harsh noise, and at other times it’s closer to power electronics with its heavily flanged vocals and more prominent rhythms – not forgetting the elements of industrial and electroacoustic music with its more subtle experimentations and tape warblings. Well, I’ll leave figuring out all that to those who aren’t satisfied with describing this as murky, rough and atmospheric noise.
The tape indeed sounds murky and gloomy, but not in a depressing way, but rather in an eerie way – like visiting some unfamiliar or abandoned place at night while equipped with poor lighting, and hearing something that you can’t pinpoint. Some objects are being rustled about somewhere by someone, and it just sounds unnatural. Despite this, it all sounds very physical and hand-made. The minimalistic high-contrast black and white artwork suits the same feel, as you’re seeing some shapes, but can’t be sure what it actually is that you’re looking at. Perhaps this sense of uncertainty bordering on the nightmarish is what was being referred to with the j-card’s phrase “forever dreaming”.
This remains the first and only tape I’ve heard from the project, but if the others are as good, I’m not at all surprised why a multitude of labels have wanted to publish Awenydd’s tapes.
Sample on the label’s bandcamp page: https://outsiderart.bandcamp.com/album/sb-r-ysbrydoliaeth
First things first: the tape, same as your project itself, carries a Welsh name. A translator gave me two options for the tape’s title, either “spore of inspiration” or “spore of spirituality” – but is either of them a correct English translation of Sbôr Ysbrydoliæth?
In the context of this tape, it translates to “spore of inspiration”. The idea for the release came to me very quickly: n end-of-the-year private cassette to gift to labels, penpals, and friends that I worked alongside or traded with throughout the year as a thank you for being a source of inspiration and support.
Previously, I had been having conversations with Dean from Outsider Art who wanted to release an Awenydd tape on his label at some point, so after I sent a copy of the initial self-released version to him, he thought it would be a great fit for an Outsider Art release. What you hear on the Outsider Art version is identical to the initial self-released version, which was recorded as nine tracks during two sessions in mid-December of 2024.
In your interview in Satatuhatta-label’s newsletter Noise Accordion issue 2/24, you mentioned the logo/symbol you use for Awenydd depicts the “three sources of bardic inspiration”, and that the number three is important for the project both symbolically and considering the techniques you use. Could you elaborate on that, especially regarding the technique side?
The symbol I use is a generic Neo-druidic symbol that indeed represents the three sources of bardic inspiration, joined together to represent Awen. For me, those sources are inspiration, influence, and intuition, which I weave together as one to create a fourth, a sonic interpretation of Awen. This sonic interpretation is ever-evolving and changing, such as the nature of reality.
Three is important to the project in a technical way, primarily because I mix three loops together to serve as the foundation for a track and perform on top of that and mix everything live while recording.
Continuing from above: what kind of gear do you use with Awenydd, and did your choice of gear differ on this tape from what you usually use?
My gear setup has largely remained the same since the inception of the project in 2023. With the first few tapes, everything was made using just synthesiser and vocals into my pedal chain. The gwyar tape marked a shift in sound when I added a long neglected pedal from my collection into the chain that revealed a path down a more interesting sonic palette, which continued up until sbôr ysbrydoliæth where I abandoned the synthesiser and started experimenting with found objects, field recordings collected over several years, and microphone into the same pedal chain.
I’ve slowly found a sonic palette that speaks to me over the years with whatever gear I happened to have collected over the last couple decades.
My favourite pedals that I use are made by Recovery Effects & Devices of Seattle (US). Overall, my setup is primarily hardware-based, but I also utilise very subtle effects in my DAW to give a little more colour to the atmosphere of the recordings during the live tracking process.
It was very important to me to have the final sound dialled in before recording, as I don’t really have the patience or desire to mess around with post-production techniques like editing, automation, mixing, etc… f I edit anything at all, it’s usually just a crossfade between the beginning and end of tracks to make it a seamless listening experience.
Aside of gear, what about the recording locations? I mentioned in my review of it that listening to the tape is like visiting some abandoned place in bad lighting, which makes you doubt your senses and you start to imagine seeing shapes in darkness. Do places like that actually have any interest to you and have you made field recordings in such places, or is it all just my imagination?
I really enjoy hearing what sights are evoked in others by the sounds I capture, and for me this acts as a sort of dialogue between myself and the listener.
Sound is a very visual thing for me, which is why I enjoy listening to noise so much.
Certain textures of sound can evoke very strange and abstract images in my mind, and I really enjoy diving into those images and seeing where they lead my thoughts and emotions and what inspiration may result from these journeys.
Location has always been purely happenstance for me. I just record whatever sounds are interesting to me wherever I am, and maybe these sounds will yield something inspirational to me when I experiment with my gear.
There are some vocals on the tape, and they’ve done in various styles from heavily flanged to less effected ones. By the tape’s end the vocals are more like just a sound, a continuous exhale. Could you tell us something about the tape’s lyrics, or are they kept obscure on purpose?
The lyrics on this tape were purely stream-of-consciousness, and as a result of this, nothing was written down or thought out before or after the fact.
Everything was entirely in-the-moment for me during these two recording sessions. Typically, I don’t have any ideas for tracks before I start experimenting or recording, and I just sort of go on autopilot mode when a particular mood strikes. Narratives seem to form long after the recordings are finished and I have had the chance to contextualise the sounds with whatever was going on in my life before the time of recording.
The sounds seem to be my way of subconsciously processing my life around a particular time. This is something I have been thinking about or realising lately, and I don’t quite have a firm understanding of it yet, but I am enjoying the results for the time being.
There are a few exceptions, such as your CD-R on Mechanical Presence Records and taking part on the Freak Animal International Vol. 2 compilation CD, but for the main part your releases have been published on cassette. You avoid publishing your material in digital form online, with one of the reasons for it being that you find online releases to be less engaging and more prone to become background listening. I think there is a sound logic behind it, that if a release demands very little effort, it might be exactly what you end up giving it. This non-digital approach applies to your tape releases too, so for example your tape on Satatuhatta is not available for streaming on the label’s bandcamp page (while pretty much everything else from their catalogue is), and this tape on Outsider Art has just two minute-long snippets to be heard on theirs. Do you also prefer cassettes due their sound properties or some other factor, or is it mainly about the non-digital aspect? I acquired this tape as a trade from you (along with a hand-written and stamped note), and the Outsider Art bandcamp page states that trading a tape is also how the label boss first came across Awenydd, so tape trades must be a part of the charm for you.
For experimental music, particularly noise, I tend to prefer the sound of cassette releases. Sometimes a CD sounds better, sometimes vinyl… it’s a case-by-case basis for me.
I take great pleasure in trading tapes, and I trade primarily with other artists to share our own creations with each other. lso, the tactile nature of cassettes, longform listening rituals, their recyclability, and greater potential for use with DIY-minded artists and labels is very appealing to me.
Based on the ones I’ve seen, your releases tend to have a fairly unified visual style: dark or even murky tones, abstract textures, and often the earlier mentioned bardic symbol is a central element in the front cover. Do you handle the graphics yourself, or are they made by the publishing labels based on your guidelines?
I handle all of the visual aspects of my releases, and my process is almost identical to my recording process: tilising my own photography, composed of happenstance appearances in my surroundings, and improvising with effects and layering while letting the sounds influence my improvisations.
Awenydd hasn’t existed for that long yet, but you’ve already made a fair amount of tapes – and based on what I’ve heard of them, you’ve managed to keep their quality high. I’ve understood that your style tends to be somewhere between harsh noise and power electronics for the most part, although if we’re splitting (or collecting) hairs I’d say that this tape shows some abstract electroacoustic elements as well. While the musical side is quite diverse, your releases’ visual side, the release titles, the live-recording methods etc. make me think that you’ve nonetheless got a fairly good idea of what Awenydd releases should look and sound like. Have you yet had to wonder if some recording sounds like Awenydd or not, possibly ending up where a lot of noise makers do: at starting a side project? Or is Awenydd rather like a common header for whatever style of noise you’ll end up making over time?
Thank you for the kind words. I am happy and feel blessed that others are resonating with the material, even though I am primarily making everything for myself first and foremost.
Inspiration has been all around me over the last couple of years, which has resulted in a very productive period which is still ongoing.
Extreme sounds have always been something I enjoy hearing as long as there is a captivating atmosphere.
The current path I am on creatively has been pleasurable and rewarding. am sure that my sound, technique, or style may change at some point, but I have no idea when that may be, and it will only occur naturally. ne thing I never do with this project is force anything. don’t think I’ll start a side-project at this point. or me, “awenydd” (translation “the inspired one”), is a good representation of where I am at creatively.
While we’re looking ahead: what are the current news and future plans of Awenydd?
Several releases are finished/in-progress.
As I write this, I am currently dubbing copies of a self-released live/rehearsal tape to be released on 22/11 at Resistor in Leiden, NL.
In the near future, a split tape with Urall will appear on Buried In Slag & Debris alongside an interview in Untitled Zine.
Also, a solo full-length CD will appear on Cloister Recordings in A5 digipak format with special edition copies including a bonus c20 tape that I handmade.
In-progress works include split tapes with Heppakirjat, and Chaos V.G., collaborative tape with Bob Marinelli, a sort of collaborative compilation tape with Max Julian Eastman, Svartvit, Geseling, and Vincent Dallas entitled Hogewoerd, and a solo tape on Noisendo.
Hopefully more after that, and maybe a vinyl release.
Contact: voidofcoursetapes [at] gmail
