Singer and BBC radio presenter Cerys Matthews
‘Gafr wen, wen, wen…” It’s a grey January morning, but a ray of sunshine is beaming down the phone line: the voice of Cerys Matthews, calling from her home in west London. Husky and sweet, instantly recognisable, and capable of bringing a golden shimmer to anything – even the interminable Welsh folk song Cyfri’r Geifr, which she’s just launched into on a whim. “Many people hate it. It’s about goats.”
The sudden burst of song is a reminder of how rare a treat Matthews’s singing has become. The last album she sang on came out seven years ago, and her latest – We Come From the Sun – doesn’t feature her voice at all. Instead, it’s a set of soundscapes she has composed to accompany readings by 10 poets, whom she herded together for a pre-lockdown recording at Abbey Road last year.