branwen
Music composer and producer
Branwen has been composing and producing music for theatre and screen since 2006.
Her work combines character with high production quality. Branwen's versatile approach demonstrates insight and collaborative sensitivity informed by three decades working professionally in the music industry.
Scroll down for some examples of her work...
Watch the "Petula" trailer to hear a collage of some of the music Branwen produced for the show.
Petula
Once again collaborating with the fantastic August 012, this time as part of a large scale co-production with National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedleathol Cymru, Branwen created music and sound for spring 2022 show Petula.
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The play follows twelve-year-old Pwdin who escapes his family to go on a quest into space to find his long lost cousin, Petula. The technically complex production brought his stellar adventures to the stage, with plenty of scope for spacey, atmospheric soundscapes and sampladelic, cosmic beats.
All the Rage
Branwen was commissioned by Wales-based artist Emily Laurens to create sound design for her short film "All the Rage (The Princess and the Pea)", a fascinating project funded by Celf Ar Y Cyd, the Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru.
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The piece explored the ready-made garment industry, often referred to as fast fashion. Creatively it gave Branwen the opportunity to work with found sounds and experiment with rhythm and texture, considering the boundaries between music and sound in the process.
Watch "The Apoclypse Killer" below, although please note the film contains some violent, disturbing scenes and flashing images.
The Apocalypse Killer
During October 2021 Branwen was lucky enough to be able to collaborate with model, activist and creative genius Rain Dove on a short horror film they produced, working alongside a brilliant team of predominantly LGBTQ+ creatives.
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After some initial Zoom conversations with Rain Dove to discuss direction, and working with a rough edit of the film, Branwen created the soundtrack for the first half of the film, until the twist at 7'24".
Afanc
Theatre and dance company f.a.b. The Detonators commissioned Branwen to composed music, songs and soundscapes for their 2021 production "Afanc", a playful re-invention of the tale of the eponymous mythical Welsh monster.
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The story they developed incorporated the theme of overcoming fear while facing and combating climate change, and gave Branwen opportunities to combine more traditional folk instruments with mystical fantasy timbres. The piece was toured around outside venues across Wales during the summer.
Play the video to listen to "Aristophanes", the first of the "Singing the Subject" trilogy. The other two pieces can be found on the August 012 website here.
Singing the Subject
During the lockdown of 2020, Branwen composed music for an online piece of theatre produced by August 012 entitled "Singing the Subject".
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The work explored themes of love, combining ancient texts from Plato's "The Symposium" and the Sumerian poem "Inanna and Dumuzi" with the west Walian choir tradition of Canu'r Pwnc.
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Branwen composed three pieces of music which fused world instrumentation with electronica to accompany her arrangements of the text. Vocals were recorded remotely by the cast and participant volunteers.
Fat 'n' Clean
Carys Eleri, one of Branwen's regular collaborators, created a series of comedy music videos during the lockdown of 2020/2021.
Branwen produced the music for each of these, the first of which, '"Fat 'n' Clean", was released as a charity single to raise money for PPE equipment through Tarian Cymru.
Frankenstein
Branwen composed an original score for the 2019 Lindley Players production of Frankenstein. The music is a blend of electronica and steampunk elements, rich with metallic clangs and crackling electricity.
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On Hallowe'en of that year, Branwen released a mini album of the score on her own label GoldHill Records.
Lovecraft
(Not the Sex Shop in Cardiff)
One of Branwen's regular collaborators is performer, writer, producer, singer, and song-writer Carys Eleri. Not long after meeting during the August 012 production "Yuri" (see below), Carys asked Branwen to produce the music for her one-woman comedy show "Lovecraft (Not the Sex Shop in Cardiff)".
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The show was originally created by Carys for the Wales Festival of Voice 2018, and has since been toured in the UK and beyond.
Yuri
Branwen's first collaboration with Mathilde López, founder of August 012, was in 2015 for "Yuri".
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Branwen created all the music for the play which included a collection of the National Anthems of several countries, a dreamy bossa nova, various pastiche TV themes, and a classic moment of Piaf.
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Vocals on the national anthems by Carys Eleri.
My Life in CIA
During 2012 Branwen created music for "My Life in CIA", Give It a Name's adventurous piece of promenade theatre based on the Harry Matthews book. The production took its audience on a covert adventure around Paris in the early 1970s (Cardiff City Centre doing a magnificent stand-in job!), complete with disguise glasses and walkie-talkies for all.
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The score contained elements of jazz, funk and electronica, with the odd Chilean traditional dance thrown in for good measure. An ecstatic Debussy-esque choral finale was sung live by the supporting cast in a secret location at the back of St. David's Hall.
Heart of Darkness
One of Branwen's earliest professional theatre composing engagements was creating music for Give It A Name's devised adaptation of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in 2010.
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Fusing her trademark brand of electronica with music inspired by the Congo and Victorian classical, the eclectic soundtrack was compiled as an album which is available on the GiantMusic Bandcamp page.
