Huw M -‘Gathering Dusk’ (Gwymon Records)

There’s no shortage of singer-songwriters in pretty much any part of the UK. And for all I know, there are people in Senegal, Argentina and Papua new Guinea bemoaning that there are so many people doing the same thing.

But there is something really rather pleasant about Gathering Dusk, Huw’s second album (I haven’t heard his first Os Mewn S_n – but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt). Featuring rather nice instrumentation and carefully arranged songs sung in both English and Welsh, it’s gentle without being bland, soothing without being soporific.

I can’t speak Welsh any more than I can speal Arabic or Swahili, but the songs in Welsh sound lovely, whatever it is he is conveying.And there’s something affecting about the simplicity of songs like ‘The Perfect Silence’ which brings to mind fellow Welsh songsmiths like Euros Childs and Gruff Rhys.

This album may not break new ground or challenge anything, but it is certainly a very pleasant soundtrack to thirty-five minutes, like hot chocolate for the soul. Worth a listen.

***1/2

Gathering Dusk is released on Gwymon Records on July 30.