Huw V Williams and Di-Cysgodion

“Cariad Carn Carw”

Self Released – available via Bandcamp)

Huw V Williams – electric bass, Billy Marrows, Mike De Souza – electric guitars, Jay Davis – drums
with special guest Laura Jurd – trumpet

Born in 1990 in Bangor, North Wales, the bassist and composer Huw V. Williams is a graduate of the Jazz Course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff. He is now based in London and is an in demand sideman in addition to being the leader of several of his own projects.

Williams is a musician that I’ve kept an eye on since first seeing him play with the RWCMD Big Band and with a variety of small groups at various venues in South Wales during his Cardiff days. When not performing himself Williams was a regular in the audience at the much missed Dempsey’s venue in Cardiff, watching and learning from other musicians. A frequent award winner his accolades have included the 2012 Yamaha Jazz Scholars Prize and the Friends of RWCMD Prize which was awarded at his graduation.

Whilst still based in Wales Williams became a regular member of pianist Huw Warren’s trio and in 2013 played what was then probably the biggest gig of his life at Brecon Jazz Festival when he appeared alongside Warren and the brilliant New York based drummer Jim Black in a one off collaboration billed as “Wales meets Brooklyn”. I was part of an audience that witnessed a brilliant group performance that turned out to be one of the Festival highlights, with Williams acquitting himself superbly. Although most of the pieces that were played were written by Warren or Black the programme included Williams’ composition “Glyn”.  This piece later made  a most welcome appearance here as a ‘bonus track’ at the end of Williams’ debut album album “Hon”, released in 2016.  This really was a genuine bonus (so often many so called “bonus tracks” are little more than gratuitous filler) and particularly so for those of us who were lucky enough to be there when it was recorded. 

Following graduation Williams moved to London, becoming a member of the Chaos Collective of young musicians co-founded by trumpeter Laura Jurd and pianist Elliot Galvin. Both of these appeared on “Hon”, a quintet recording that also featured saxophonist Alam Nathoo and drummer Peter Ibbetson. “Hon”, which means “this” in Welsh, also became a band name and the recording represented an outstanding début from the highly talented Williams.  My review of “Hon”, which provides the source for much of the above biographical detail, can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/huw-v-williams-hon

Williams is a versatile musician and plays both acoustic and electric bass. He has worked in both the jazz and rock worlds and has collaborated with the jazz musicians Ivo Neame (piano), Jakub Klimiuk (guitar) and Jeff Williams (drums) and with rock artists such as Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and Kliph Scurlock (formerly of the Flaming Lips).

He appeared as a sideman on Rhys’ album “Sadness Set Me Free” (2024) and also features on jazz recordings by saxophonist Ronan Perrett (“Between”, 2024), guitarist Mike De Souza (“Chrysalis” 2023, “Slow Burn” 2019), drummer Luke Bainbridge (“Surface Tension”, 2021), trumpeter Duncan Frazer (“Soundscapes of Manhattan”, 2021), trumpeter Tomos Williams (“Cwmwl Tystion / Witness”, 2021). With the exception of the Rhys and Perrett recordings all ofthese albums have been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

As a bandleader Williams’ projects have included Equidistant Between, an international trio featuring British saxophonist George Crowley and New York drummer Devin Gray, which was formed in 2018 and which released an album on the same name in 2020.

A second international collaboration was Constantly Moving Happiness Machines, a quartet co-led by Williams and the Berlin based saxophonist Jonathan Lindhorst which also featured British pianist Mark Pringle and Austrian drummer Max Santner. Williams and Lindhorst first met at a jazz workshop in Salzburg in 2008 and have since remained in contact. They formed the CMHM quartet in 2019 but the group’s activities were interrupted by the Covid pandemic and the debut album “Constantly Moving Happiness Machines” was eventually released in 2022.

The lockdown period also saw the release of the solo bass recording “Llonyddiaeth” (2021).

Williams has also recorded three improvised albums in the digital format with guitarist Pedro Velasco and drummer Andrew Lisle, all released during 2023.

All of these recordings featuring Williams as a leader or co-leader are available via his Bandcamp page.
https://huwvwilliams1.bandcamp.com/music

All this brings us to Williams’ latest project, a new quartet called Di-Cysgodion (apparently the band name is Welsh for ‘Anti Shadows’)  that features the leader specialising on electric bass alongside the twin electric guitars of Billy Marrows and Mike De Souza, with Jay Davis completing the group on drums.

Di-Cysgodion has already played a number of gigs in London, Cardiff and Bristol and the publicity for these events has profiled the band thus;
“Williams goes back to his rock roots with this instrumentation to explore the sonic pallet from the view of a jazz improviser/composer. Having previously led projects with no harmony instruments, Huw decided to have a group which deals with harmony head on, exploring dense harmonic voicings paired with infectious rhythms and live stereo guitars. This music comes from a huge pool of influences, including Deerhoof, Ravel, Thelonious Monk, Super Furry Animals, Ornette Coleman, Hermeto and everything in between. A musical spectacle not to be missed.”

The Di-Cysgodion group, together with guest trumpeter Laura Jurd, are due to release a new single, “Cariad Carn Carw”, on July 18th 2025. The Jazzmann has had exclusive access to the track and it’s a belter. At a little over two and a half minutes duration it’s the ideal length for a single, a concentrated burst of energy that marshals an almost punk like urgency and intensity as the chunky riffing of guitars and electric bass combines with Davis’ vibrant drum grooves to provide the perfect foil for Jurd’s strident but fluent trumpeting. There’s a short pause for reflection at around 01.20 as the other instruments drop out, leaving just the guitars, but when bass, drums and trumpet return Jurd solo with an even greater intensity and focus as the piece races towards its conclusion.

From this tantalising snippet one gets the impression that Di-Cysgodian, either with or without Jurd, would be a hugely exciting group to see performing live, a twin guitar line up in any music genre is always a thrilling and intriguing prospect.

“Cariad Carn Carw” was recorded at the Lightship 95 Studio in London and is likely to be the first in a stream of singles from Di-Cysgodion. It is available from Williams’ Bandcamp page. Link here;
https://huwvwilliams1.bandcamp.com/album/cariad-carn-carw

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