Tãn

Singer Lleuwen Steffan first made her mark in 2005 with Duw a Wyr (God Only Knows) an original, jazzy take on Welsh hymns. In 2007, Penmon, named after her home in Anglesey, was also praised, not least for its quirkiness. Tan is, unsurprisingly, also unusual. The word means fire in Welsh and Breton, an interest that was sparked when Steffan went to Brittany to perform, where she heard Breton, a close cousin of Welsh, and fell in love with the language. She now lives there some of the time; Tan includes four songs in Breton, three Steffan has written and a setting of a poem by the renowned Lan Tangi.

Steffan has formed a fruitful musical partnership with the double-bass player Vincent Guerin. He shares her unshackled approach to music-making: there's some irritating, busy bashing of pots and pans here. There's also catchy Breton rhythm and blues, bantamweight rock in ‘War Varc'h d'ar Mor’ (Ride the Love Horse), and lounge jazz with ‘Paid â Sôn’ (Don't Mention It). Steffan's singing and the consistently inventive playing raise the songs beyond mere genre pieces. On Tan, Steffan and Guerin have created a forthright modern music, wide-ranging, dynamic, sexy and sometimes desolate. This is fitting because people live contemporary lives in these languages, lives that include lying in lonely beds in November, smoking – which is loosely what ‘Tachwedd’ happens to be about.