Rhosyn Blessing Force Warehouse Party, Oxford 13/2/11
4/5
By: Liane Escorza
Rhosyn is the new band from Oxford’s Rose Dagul, reduced to a five-piece from a nine-member one called Wap Wap Wow. The peculiarity, to start with, of this band is the fact that they all play strings, except for the drummer. You would think that their sound would fall into the claws of classical influences. But no. These claws belong to another kind of animal.
Rose’s dramatic, beautifully howling and warm voice swings back and forth over the rigged textures of her cello. Stories about loss of love, pain and sadness are projected to the limits of the stratosphere. Because, what’s the point in reducing to a murmur the feeling of something so strong?
Rhosyn’s music is of the powerful kind that gets under your skin, with chest vibrating to the pounding force of the heart and the wailing of strings shattering like tears of glass. It is a celebration of life, of beauty and of freedom. It is a celebration of darkness with a dignified attitude and a lush and elegant sense of euphoria.
Mesmerising, hypnotic… Rhosyn tastes like moss and salty water of the Isles and reverberates like an amplified old gramophone. She plucks thorns as bravely as she plucks flowers. Her petals of despair swirling and raising like her pitch does in ‘Glass’ and swaying back down gently like in ‘Eurydice’. With songs like these, it is easy to wish to fall out of love… and fall in love with Rhosyn.
- Photos by Liane Escorza
Artists in this article: Rhosyn
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