Cardiff-based post-hardcore six-piece BREICHIAU HIR are delighted to announce the news that their debut album Hir Oes I’r Cof will be released on 19th November 2021 via Welsh language alternative label Libertino Records.
Following a first spin from Huw Stephens on BBC Wales, the band have revealed the video for the album’s title track and lead single ‘Hir Oes I’r Cof’, which is released on 2nd September 2021.
Commenting on the meaning behind the track, front man Steffan Dafydd says: “Hir Oes I’r Cof loosely translates to long live memory. The title was something I heard (or possibly misheard) from an elderly man giving a speech about where I grew up. The song is about the addictive nature of looking back, the comfort and escapism you get from nostalgia, juggled with the infinite sadness that you can never truly relive past memories, and the more you replay your memories the more they reshape and reform.”
A band who blend cathartic intensity, dense layers of guitar, and fragile melancholic moments, Breichiau Hir’s sole mission is to move and connect to their audience. Bursting with melody, fragility and aggression, the sextet often jump from fierce energy to delicate passages to crashing waves of noise.
Tackling the theme of a melancholy nostalgia with poignant lyrics, self-deprecating humour and surreal wordplay, every song on Hir Oes I’r Cof is performed proudly in the band’s native Welsh language.
“Halfway through writing the album, I noticed my lyrics were all following a narrative and theme around nostalgia,” expands Dafydd on the record. “It’s a journey that follows the narrator getting totally engrossed in that feeling and losing grasp of reality. The theme of a river as a metaphor for time runs through the album.”
In a scene that’s given birth to internationally renowned and respected names like Funeral For A Friend, Kids In Glass Houses, The Blackout, Bullet For My Valentine, Attack! Attack! and many more, Breichiau Hir are, surprisingly, the first band from Wales to break from the long-established tradition of emulating their American and English contemporaries and forbears to stride confidently out in their own lane, and their own language.
Releasing their debut EP Mae’r Angerdd Yma Yn Troi In Gas in 2015, the band have since released a string of standalone singles including ‘Mewn Darnau / Halen’ (2018), ‘Portread O Ddyn Yn Bwyta Ei Hun’ (2018), ‘Penblwydd Hapus Iawn’ (2019), ‘Yn Dawel Bach / Saethu Tri’ (2019), ‘Preseb O Ias’ (2020), and most recently their cover of Bryn Fôn classic ‘Y Bardd O Montreal’ (2020).
This slow-drip of singles has borne fruit for the band, with a wave of support both at home and beyond from Huw Stephens and Daniel P Carter at BBC R1, Brian Foss at Sonic Reducer on KEXP, Adam Walton at BBC Radio Wales, Planet Mosh, Punktastic, God Is In The TV, Buzz Magazine, For The Rabbits, Circuit Sweet and more.
On the live side, they’ve kept busy building notoriety on the Welsh festival circuit with appearances at Green Man, Sŵn, FOCUS Wales, HUB Festival, The Swansea Fringe, supported Single Mothers, and their track ‘Yn Dawel Bach’ was even used by FA Wales in their Euro 2020 hype videos.
Debut album Hir Oes I’r Cof is released 19th November 2021 via Libertino Records
Live show: 09.10.21 – Wrexham – FOCUS Wales
‘Hir Oes I’r Cof’ Welsh language lyrics:
Dwi wedi dechre troi
Llwgu am ddod yn olMa’ rhwbeth yn canu cloch
Teimlad angladdolMa’n dawel, achlysurol
A mor absennolHir oes i’r cof
A ma’r lleisie’n aralleirio
Yn aneglur wrth atseinio
