COMPOSER Michael Stimpson is behind a new album commemorating a Welsh poet and a Welsh tragedy.

The album, released by Stone Records, is entitled Dylan & The Drowning of Capel Celyn.

Stimpson, from Bishopstone, said: "The Dylan song cycle was instigated on the stage of the Purcell Room when Sioned Williams, principal harp with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, was rehearsing a different piece of mine.

"I remember making a throw-away remark about doing a piece about Dylan Thomas and it seemed so appropriate, with Sioned’s Welsh background and a series of little coincidences of my own - I had, for example, lived as a student in Delancey Street, opposite a house that Dylan had lived in.

"And so I began to think through the work and the result was a biographical song cycle based on Dylan’s poems and texts."

The song cycle traces the life of Dylan from childhood in Wales, through tempestuous marriage to Caitlin and his long battle with alcoholism, to his untimely death in New York in 1953.

"The harp solo,‘The ‘Drowning of Capel Celyn’, began life as another commission for Sioned," Stimpson said.

"She approached me for a new piece to mark her 60th birthday.

"Her grandfather, Welsh Trade Union leader, politician and poet Huw T. Edwards was chairman of the ‘Save Tryweryn’ campaign that fought hard to overturn the decision to flood the Tryweryn and Capel Celyn valleys to form a reservoir for Liverpool."

A harp solo, it is set in five movements and evokes Capel Celyn in first light, the marching of protesters and the violence of the flooding.

The work was premiered at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea and the Wigmore Hall in London.

“In my mind, gradually the waves subside and the waters soften - bubbles stream, fish glide, and towards the end are the first signs of sadness before a fond farewell,” Stimpson said.

The recording of the work was taken from the performance of the work at the Llandudno Festival, featuring one of baritone Roderick Williams.

Stimpson has composed for some of the most distinguished artists in the classical music industry and has had his work performed in London’s most prestigious venues, as well as in the US, Italy, and Australia.

The new album has been released following the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas and the 50th anniversary of the drowning of Capel Celyn.

It is being released on Stone Records on Friday, January 8 and is also available from michaelstimpson.co.uk, as well as outlets such as Amazon and iTunes.