Cerys Matthews We Come From The Sun ‘poem song album’ released

The latest album from Cerys Matthews is released today, January 15.

“We are living in extraordinary times, I wanted to respond ,  but had the urge to offer more than one voice, more than one perspective. Not an echo chamber .” – Cerys Matthews

The album released by Decca is composed by Cerys Matthews with Hidden Orchestra and features 10 UK poets.

In February 2020 Abbey Road studios welcomed each of the 10 poets to record pieces from their collections. Then lock down hit….

But remotely and with the additional help of field recordists and musicians around the world, Cerys and Joe [Acheson of Hidden Orchestra] created a sound journey for these poems with the theme of: Genesis: birth, heritage, a journey about to begin.

‘I’ve always been in awe of the power of a great turn of phrase; in poems, songs and prose. There are some exceptional poems being added to the world right now. So I invited poets whose work I admired and had championed for years to join me in this project. I selected  poems which worked across and with each other to become a journey, an aural adventure.” – Cerys Matthews

Taking part on the album are poets MA.MOYO, Raymond Antrobus, Lemn Sissay, Liz Berry, Anthony Anaxagorou, Adam Horovitz, Cia Mangat, Imtiaz Dharker, Kim Moore and Kayo Chingonyi.

Cerys Mathews  presented BBC 2’s My Life in Verse  in 2007  and  regularly reads poems and excerpts on her 6 music show, mixing them  with contemporary music live on air.

“I’m hoping it’ll be the first in a series of ‘poem song’ albums on Decca, with life on earth as inspiration. As simple and complex as that. The theme for this then, as the first, had to begin at the beginning: Genesis.”  – Cerys Matthews