Medhel An Gwyns

Having watched Poldark and heard this wonderful song, Medhel An Gwyns (Soft is the Wind), written by storyteller and folk musician Mike O'Connor, there was nothing in the world that would have been able to stop me from doing a cover of it!

I love the haunting and authentic feel of the song, as if was written hundreds of years ago with lyrics worn down by the stone of time and modernised to our lingual understanding, rather than a song written in our time. It says a lot of the closeness to and knowledge about the Cornish culture and music it's writer possesses!

I have made my own guitar arrangement for it, as I always try to give covers my own touch rather than simply copy the original. I hope you enjoy it! :)

Patreon

After thinking very long and hard about it, I've started a Patreon! I've decided to make it a Patreon for both my music and my cosplay as I'm passionate about both, and often combine the two (as some of you might already know). This will also be the first and only place where you'll be able to find the guitar chords for my songs (available to pledge level $10+), and patrons will get exclusive access to both full lyrics and new music videos before anyone else.

Although I dream of being able to do music and cosplay full time, I don't expect to be able to live off it, so this is merely a means to get a little bit extra funding that will be used to improve my skills and get better equipment to increase the quality of my content.

A long overdue update!

This blog has been sorely neglected for a long time now. Most of that is due to a house fire which happened shortly after my last blog post, in which my guitars got damaged beyond repair along with a lot of other things (but luckily no one were hurt, so the only things lost were just that; things). The following year was spent recovering, rebuilding and finding a new place to live. All in all both me and my husband have come back from it on top with tremendous help from family and friends.

But enough about that! I've not been completely idle! There are quite a few new songs up on my Soundcloud account and even some new videos on YouTube. I'm currently also working on a new song now, but it's taking a bit of time as I have lost most of my voice after attending HobbitCon 4 in Bonn, Germany, where I was given the privilege of performing "In the Halls of Our Fathers" during the Opening Ceremony. This was such a wonderful experience! Particularly because a friend of mine, unbeknownst to me, had organised a little stunt for me, asking people to light the flashlights of their mobiles during my performance, so that as I was singing, one light after another popped up until it looked like stars reflected in a moving ocean!

I've got a few pictures some of my friends were kind enough to take

Photo by Unconventional

Photo by Petra Beuving

Photo by Petra Beuving

Photo by Petra Beuving

Photo by Petra Beuving

YouTube Debut

Just one week ago, I made and posted my first YouTube video! I've been slightly obsessed about the Outlander version of Skye Boat Song ever since I saw the series, and I felt like doing a little cover, so here it is:

It's not very long, the sound quality is kind of iffy, but it's a start! :)

Jenta og Råta

This is one of the few songs I've written in Norwegian. It was born as I read the book "Odinsbarn" ("Odin's child" directly translated), the first of three in the series "Ravneringene" ("The Raven Rings") by Siri Pettersen, and stubled across a song where only two verses were on print, but the story of the song was briefly summarised in the text. The book is set in a world that conjures up associations to Nordic Viking Age, mixed with Medieval inspired fantasy, but it's inhabitants are not humans; they are of Ymsætt ("Ætt" being vaguely equivalent to clan, but is used in the book to descibe the entire race) and have tails like the Scandinavian mythological creature "hulder".Humans are things of legend, "Odinsbarn", "Mennskr", said to inflict "The Rot" upon any Ættling whom they got close to, and this song is about a girl who gets too close.

The first and the penultimate verse are those from the book. I wrote the rest of the verses and composed the music. Having finished the song a day before the release party for the second book, "Råta", I sent Siri this recording of the song. She liked it so much, she allowed me to play it at the release party, and it was very well received! ^_^

What bigger compliment can a fan ask for! :D

Nimrodel

'Do you hear the voice of Nimrodel?' asked Legolas. 'I will sing you a song of the maiden Nimrodel, who bore the same name as the stream beside which she lived long ago. It is a fair song in our woodland tongue; but this is how it runs in the Western Speech, as some in Rivendell now sing it.'

- From the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien

When I first read The Fellowship of The Ring in English (my father had read the Norwegian version for me as a child), I was in my teens and I got mildly obsessed with the poem of Nimrodel and Amroth. I memorised it, and slowly a melody started to form in my head. Now, almost twice the age I was then, I've put chords and harmonies to that melody and made a song out of the poem.

As ever, I've drawn my influence from folk music, but I also wanted to convey some of the haunting atmosphere of the scene in the book from whence it came.


I know others have probably done so before me, but this is my version of "Nimrodel":

Welcome!

I have been toying with the idea of making a music blog for a long while now, but for various reasons, it's just not happened. I keep asking myself "what would I fill it with?" and not finding the answer. In the end, this finally became a reality as I realised I needed someplace outside of Facebook to write about music and update the world about projects and gigs, and it all feels a little bit more tidy to have everything in one place.

So, welcome to my new digital home! While I will still be present on other social media platforms as well, I'll aspire to have this as the place where I collect everything.

I'm working on getting the gallery up where you will find pictures and video clips of my performaces, but this is still very much a work in progress, so bear with me! If you want to listen to my music, you can easily do so by using the SoundCloud widget on the right! Also, feel free to use the contact form if you have any questions or wish to book me for an event! :)