Wales Millennium Centre’s Festival of Voice/ Gŵyl y Llais is being rebranded as Llais (by dropping the English name of the festival) and will run between October 26 and 2, 2022.
The festival will begin with the Welsh Music Prize ceremony, which will include live performances and the announcement of three prizes, including the Welsh Music Prize itself.
The festival line-up includes John Cale, who performed at the inaugural Festival of Voice in 2016, returning in his 80th birthday year to his native Wales, to perform a special one-off performance with Sinfonia Cymru and special guests, and to chat about his life and career. Death Songbook, featuring delicate new versions of songs about death performed online at last year’s Gŵyl 2021 by Suede’s Brett Anderson, Charles Hazlewood, and Paraorchestra, will be performed in front of a live audience for the first time.
Also appearing will be South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, Texan indie folk rockers Midlake, English rock band black midi and Wales’ own Cate Le Bon. Niger-based musician Bombino will perform his only UK date this year as well as eight-piece experimental London band caroline and psych-folk group Tara Clerkin Trio. In between performances, audiences can also enjoy interactive rave experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats – one of the hits of Coventry UK City of Culture last year.
Other acts include composer, singer and actor Keeley Forsyth who released her second album Limbs earlier this year, and Les Amazones d’Afrique; a creative force from across the African diaspora.
There will also be free workshops with further acts will be announced in September.
Wales Millennium Centre’s Artistic Director Graeme Farrow said:,“We’ve put together a cracking line-up for this year’s Llais; from veterans to the hottest new talent, from Wales and the world over, from poets to Paraorchestra. And to top it all off, we’re incredibly proud to welcome the iconic Welsh Music Prize to the festival. It feels like a match made in music heaven.”
Llais tickets are now on sale at www.wmc.org.uk/llais.