Getting to Know… Llyn y Cwn | Interview 🎤

On the 240^th interview on The Musical Hype, we chat up with one of our most intriguing musicians yet, dark ambient project, Llyn y Cwn. 

“I

hope people enjoy my music, but I don’t really care if they do or not, first and foremost I make music that I want to hear.” Woo! Now that’s a bold, unapologetic statement, 🎙 Llyn y Cwn (the isolation, dark ambient project of producer🎙 Benjamin Ian Powell)!  Powell goes on to say, “I’m trying to fill the void for my own pleasure, but also based on my own experience – using field recordings allows me to relive the moment the sound was recorded.” Sounds intriguing.  The intrigue, my friends – and those who aren’t acquaintances – transcends the response to the first question on the 240^th interview on The Musical Hype.  This is another welcome addition to our growing collection of Q&As with tremendous insight into what makes Llyn y Cwn, well, Llyn y Cwn! So, without further ado, we unveil 🎙 Getting to Know… Llyn y Cwn: Interview no. 240!

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Starting things off, for those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Llyn y Cwn distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off? 

🎤 I hope people enjoy my music, but I don’t really care if they do or not, first and foremost I make music that I want to hear. There aren’t enough Sleep Research Facility albums, there aren’t enough Biosphere albums, I’m trying to fill the void for my own pleasure, but also based on my own experience – using field recordings allows me to relive the moment the sound was recorded.

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Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Llyn y Cwn begin and what were some of the goals or the visions you had early on? 

🎤 I grew up listening to metal, in the 90s, I discovered electronic music via Warp records. In 1996, I bought a cassette 4 track and a guitar FX unit, I started recording guitar through a huge reverb, then, I would turn the cassette over and added more reverb in reverse, then repeat.  I ended up with something that sounds similar to what I am making today.

I spent the 00’s unsuccessfully trying to emulate Boards of Canada, like everybody else. In 2007, I went to the ATP festival and heard / felt SUNN O))) live at a Butlins holiday camp – inspired (and aseholed) I announced to a friend that I was going to start a drone project called Mob Bunkhouse – the name was rubbish, but the idea stuck.

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Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now? 

🎤 I am happy that Cold Spring Records’ give me the freedom to put what I like out to a greater audience, what more can I ask for? Beyond the creative process I don’t think I have many goals, I find the act of making the sounds very relaxing, I often fall asleep whilst working on my music, and always fall asleep whilst reviewing it, it is very much sleeping music; I hope people find my music good to sleep to at low volumes, and maybe a bit scary at loud volumes – ideally both.

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Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential? 

🎤 Film soundtracks played a big part, Kubrick using György Ligeti in 2001, Eduard Artemiev’s haunting sounds in Stalker. I watched Eraserhead aged 13, David Lynch’s sound design is a huge inspiration.  On the Godflesh album Pure, Justin K Broadrick did a long ambient industrial guitar thing that embedded itself in my 16-year-old brain.

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Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative. 

🎤 I don’t play live often, so nothing too wacky, I once played in a huge lecture theater at Bangor University, that was a bit weird.  In one of my early bands, there was a support act called Green Minge, they sounded like you would expect, the gig is notorious in the Rhyl music scene for all the wrong reasons.

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Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special? 

🎤 On the new album, the closing track 🎵 “Stratigraphy” is a 31-minute epic, the original version was 51 mins but it wouldn’t fit on the CD, it is probably the most complex song I’ve recorded – there are dozens of tracks.  One prominent sound is the click of the sonar used on the ship I work on, the sub-bottom profiler, the sonar uses acoustic pulses to create an image of the stratigraphy/layers of sediment below the seabed, you can see millennia of glacial erosion and sediment settling – inspired, I have tried to create a complex layered piece that is abrasive and long.

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Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits? 

🎤 I am particularly good at submersible electrical cable splices, even if I do say so myself. I once nodded at John Craven, he nodded back, I think we both understood the significance of that moment.

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Closing things out, what is Llyn y Cwn currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.  

When I can, I spend my time traveling the country in my camper van collecting field recordings at stone circles for a future album, it is a long, drawn-out process.   I’ve also just finished an “upbeat” album under the name 🎙 Deliquescent Crystals.

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Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.  

I thank you very much!

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🎙 Getting to Know… Llyn y Cwn: Interview no. 240 [📷: Brent Faulkner, Llyn y Cwn, The Musical Hype]

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