Other Voices Cardigan has revealed the next three headline acts to perform in St Mary’s Church at this year’s festival on 26th-28th October. Mercury nominees Yard Act, King Creosote and Colm Mac Con Iomaire will join Adwaith, Cerys Hafana, Sans Soucis and Susan O’Neill in the St Mary’s Church line up across the Friday and Saturday night of the festival, with the performances also streamed live online via Other Voices YouTube.
The festival is thrilled to welcome one of the most essential British bands of the moment, Mercury Prize nominees Yard Act from Leeds, whose superb debut album, The Overload, is a brilliant, nuanced and satirical snapshot of society which hit No. 2 in the UK Albums Chart last year.
Dublin’s Colm Mac Con Lomaire is a skilled composer, multi-instrumentalist, and violinist whose works have been featured on film scores, TV shows such as ‘Blue Planet’, and award-winning animation shorts. Colm draws inspiration from the countryside of his home in Wexford and is a founding member of Kila and The Frames.
Since the mid-late 1990s, Kenny Anderson’s DIY pop alter-ego King Creosote has released over 100 records and his songs have been covered and performed by artists including Simple Minds and Patti Smith. Cardigan audiences will be treated to tracks from Anderson’s latest King Creosote outing I DES, an album that continues his quest to navigate mortality, ardour, stormy waters, the moon in the sky, and the East Neuk of Fife.
Performances in St Mary’s Church will take place in front of a public audience, and will also be streamed globally for free via Other Voices’ YouTube and socials.
The final Other Voices Cardigan Music Trail line up has also been announced today, with 80 performances taking place across the three days at venues across the town, featuring 40 hand-picked artists from Wales and Ireland. With an extraordinary mix of talent across hip-hop, folk, rock, RnB, punk, electronica, grime, soul and everything in between. The final 19 artists to be announced are:
Alffa / Autumns / Cáit Ní Riain / Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain / Ceitidh Mac / Dionne Bennett / Edie Bens / Gallops / Gráinne Hunt / Lowri Evans / Malaki / Mari Mathias / MissFaithee /Natasha Watts / Simon Whitehead / Sywel Nyw / Teddy Hunter / THUMPER / TRAMP
Formed by the talented duo of Dion Jones (guitar) and Siôn Land (drums), Alffa is a Welsh rock sensation known for their electrifying live performances and raw energy. TRAMP are a constantly evolving alt-indie rock band, based in Donegal/Derry/Tyrone in the North West of Ireland, who cite Tool, Dander, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sinead O’Connor and CMAT amongst their influences. From Wrexham, Gallops are an alternative instrumental trio presenting a mixed bag of sound and noise consisting of harsh electronic, sparse post-rock, jagged guitars and raucous percussion.
It’s a big weekend for Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Dublin’s Aoife Ní Bhriain, who met through Other Voices in lockdown and now celebrate the launch of their Irish-Welsh lovechild debut album Double You on 27th October.
One of Ireland’s most prolific young talents, Malaki burst onto the scene in 2019 with the powerful spoken-word epic Call Us By Our Names and the Dubliner has been steadily carving out his place in hip-hop ever since. An eyewitness to the disenfranchisement of Irish youth, and railing against the ‘hard man’ archetype many Irish boys are raised to uphold, Malaki tackles themes of transformation and toxic masculinity with biting quips and astonishing ingenuity.
With a line up of two drummers and four guitarists, THUMPER’s maximalist wall of sound has long since set them apart in the booming Dublin music scene and has them “punching like heavyweights alongside Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital” (Chris Hawkins, BBC Radio 6).
Back to Wales, and R&B singer-songwriter MissFaithee creates soulful music based on personal experiences, her music striking a balance between vulnerability and power. Sywel Nyw is the brainchild of musician, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic producer Lewys Wyn, whose recent release Deuddeg featured an enviable list of Welsh artists. He has produced music for Dionne Bennett, a Welsh-Jamaican vocalist whose Afro/Caribbean cultural influences are woven into her vocals, resulting in a fusion of genres that transcends borders, and who also features on this year’s trail. Teddy Hunter is a Cardiff-based musician and songwriter who works in alternative music and immersive audio, her music taking its root in sonic arts, the environment and gentle, immersive ambience.
Mari Mathias conjures a mystical creativity inspired by the folk tales and traditional songs of West Wales and Pembrokeshire. Her debut album ‘Annwn’ is described as an alternative folk sound, a great description of a nation that’s confidently redefining itself. A Welsh-born Tynesider, Ceitidh Mac is an alt. folk cellist/singer with a progressive twist to her music; indie-folk infused with a smoky style, lo-fi studio sound and a contemporary electronic edge, and a BBC Introducing tip for 2022. Swansea-born Edie Bens blends folk and country influences with the momentum of grand pop hits and the honesty and twists of singer-songwriters.
Gráinne Hunt is a contemporary folk singer and songwriter raised in Monaghan and based in Kildare, Ireland. With consistently on-point, captivating vocals and well-honed, insightful songs, Gráinnehas been described by Declan O’Rourke as “a natural performer, (with) an astounding voice that will melt your heart.’” Kerry native, trad singer and musician Cáit Ní Riain brings us potent songs for healing heads and hearts, and Autumns is the solo project of Derry’s Christian Donaghey, an outlet for electronic post-punk with a lethal pulse; a rough trade of transgressive noise, dysfunctional metal dance and DIY punk angst with a reputation for uncompromising spectacle
Completing this year’s line up from closer to home are Llangrannog-based Natasha Watts, a leading light in the international soul and funk scene, Abercych artist Simon Whitehead, who brings his watery experimental sound installation ‘Dulais’ to Cardigan gallery Canfas, and Pembrokeshire folk/Americana singer-songwriter Lowri Evans who joins the music trail for the first time.
They join the previously announced artists from Wales, Angharad, Climbing Trees, Dead Method, Gwilym Bowen Rhys, HMS Morris, Mace The Great, Mali Hâf, MELLT, Minas, Samana, Tara Bandito, and from Ireland amy michelle, Chalk, Fia Moon, Joshua Burnside, Lemoncello, Les SalAmandas, Mount Palomar, Scustin, Seba Safe, and Uly.
The festival will be hosted by Welsh TV and radio presenter Huw Stephens and presented in partnership between South Wind Blows, Mwldan and Triongl.
The full performance schedule with dates and times will be announced in the coming weeks.
Sitting alongside the live music programme, the Clebran discussions and performances at Mwldan will bring together broad and compelling voices to consider the flowing tides of past, present, and future. First Minister Mark Drakeford joins the event alongside poets, musicians, journalists, playwrights, activists, authors and historians.
Early booking weekend wristbands, giving access to the festival events, are available now priced at £25, rising to £35 on 1st October.
Full details on line up and tickets are available at Othervoices.ie