Owen Shiers

(Cynefin)

23.05.26 - St Mary's Church Eglwys Santes Fair

Mae Owen Shiers, brodor o Geredigion, yn gerddor, cyfansoddwr, cynhyrchydd, ymchwilydd, tyfwr grawn a hanesydd diwylliannol a fagwyd yng nghanol cerddoriaeth Gymreig. Yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf mae wedi canolbwyntio ar Cynefin, prosiect sy'n rhoi llais modern i dreftadaeth ddiwylliannol gyfoethog ond anwybyddu Ceredigion.

Cafodd ei albwm cyntaf Dilyn Afon ganmoliaeth eang, gan ennill enwebiadau gan gynnwys Albwm y Flwyddyn yn yr Iaith Gymraeg a thair Gwobr Gwerin Cymru, gyda The Guardian yn ei alw'n "dalent newydd syfrdanol."

Mae ei ail albwm Shimli yn parhau â'r daith hon, gan gyfuno baledi traddodiadol, barddoniaeth a chaneuon gwreiddiol wedi'u seilio ar hanes llafar a bywyd gwledig. Mae Shimli ar y rhestr fer ar gyfer Gwobr Albwm Gwerin y Flwyddyn, yr unig albwm Cymraeg ar y rhestr.

Owen Shiers is a Ceredigion native and grew up immersed in Welsh music and has plied his skills as a musician, composer and producer across a multitude of projects and genres, but in most recent years has been focusing on ‘Cynefin’.
Cynefin (pronounced ‘kuh-neh-vin’) is the brainchild of the Welsh folk singer, researcher and cultural historian, which bids to give a modern voice to Ceredigion’s rich yet neglected cultural heritage.

The project’s acclaimed debut album, Dilyn Afon (2020), marked the culmination of three years’ research mapping long-forgotten and neglected folk songs of his native Ceredigion. The Guardian hailed Shiers as ‘a stunning new talent’, and Songlines dubbed it “beguiling…a distinct debut”. Nominations for Welsh Language Album of the Year 2020 and three nominations in the 2023 Wales Folk Awards followed.

The second album, Shimli (2025), is rooted firmly in the customs and cultural vernacular of the area, drawing inspiration from living oral history and folk song-poet tradition.

“It's a personal dispatch from the struggle to preserve a language, culture and way of life,” adding, “the album is a musical petition – a stake in the ground for the diverse and the disappearing in our age of homogenisation and mass amnesia.” - Owen Shiers