Cerys Hafana | |
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![]() Hafana at WOMAD in 2024 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Cerys Havana Hickman |
Origin | Machynlleth, Powys, UK |
Genres | Contemporary folk |
Instrument(s) | Triple harp, piano |
Years active | Since 2019 |
Website | ceryshafana |
Cerys Havana Hickman, known professionally as Cerys Hafana, [1] is a multi-instrumentalist and composer [2] from Machynlleth, Wales. [3]
They are a member of AVANC (Ensemble Gwerin Ieuenctid Cymru (English: The Youth Folk Ensemble of Wales)). [4] [5]
In 2022, they released the album Edyf, based on songs found in the National Library of Wales. [6] The album was shortlisted for the 2022–2023 Welsh Music Prize [7] and the Welsh-language album of the year. [8] The Guardian named it one of the top ten folk albums of 2022. [9]
They contributed an essay to the 2022 anthology Welsh (Plural). [10] The essay was met with a controversial reception. [11]
Hafana describes their harp music as "sad Welsh harp pop" [12] [13] [14] and has produced merchandise featuring this phrase. [15]
Hafana summarized a method they use to source works to adapt during a performance at Showcase Scotland in 2023 [links added]: [16]
I spend a lot of time on the Welsh National Library's online ballads database, like any cool person with lots of friends. And I like going looking for, sort of old folk-songs and ballads and poems, that have pretty much died out, and aren't really sung today. The next [song] I'm gonna do is one of those; it was written by a guy called "Benjamin" in 1858, and it describes his experience of watching Comet Donati – which was the second brightest comet of the 19th-century, for those of you who didn't know – and it's like a 7-page epic about this comet; I've cut it down a bit.
Paul Carr and Robert Smith of the University of South Wales have described Hafana as "one of the most original voices in contemporary Welsh folk music." [17] Jude Rogers of The Guardian has described them as "a master of the Welsh triple harp" who "explores resonances from the past that connect with the modern day." [18]
Hafana describes themself as queer, not fitting into the gender binary, [11] and uses they/them pronouns. [a]
All releases below have been available through Bandcamp. [20]