"Astonishing! It went places I just wasn't expecting." - Adam Walton, BBC Wales
"Really interesting, exciting, beautiful stuff" - Noise Radio CJSW,Calgary
Pollen Woollen is a collection of improvised guitar pieces. Recorded in Rhys' home studio on the edge of the Cambrian Mountains in Mid-Wales, the album is a reflection of the remote landscape and rural community around him. Keeping the instrumentation simple has pared back the need for excessive production techniques and overthinking, maintaining the immediacy in which the album was written and recorded, for the most part in one or two takes. The few words to be found are meant as abstract decoration rather than forceful narrative.
The conflict surrounding land-use, particularly present in Rhys' locality, inspired and informed 'Pollen Woollen', at times quietly melancholic and pensive, equally conflicted, frustrated and hopeful. A hike through the mountains, meadows and marshes, filled with strident, looming chord progressions and delicate, pinched notes that hover in the air. Pollen Woollen echoes both the human legacy and the pure wonder of nature.