Trefor Goronwy

Trefor joined This Heat in 1982 to replace Gareth Williams as bassist/vocalist after the latter had quit the band, and played on their last European tour which culminated in their final appearance at the LSE in London. After a brief hiatus, he and Stephen Rickard joined Charles Hayward in the studio to work on what was originally to be a Hayward solo project. These recordings were ultimately released as Meridian by Camberwell Now. When the band finally split up, Trefor withdrew into himself somewhat, recording and making increasingly infrequent live performances under a variety of names, often producing an entirely new set of work which would only ever be performed on one occasion. Soon he began to work as a sound technician, which would lead on to involvements with artists such as Momus, The Band of Holy Joy, David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys, Spearmint (in an earlier incarnation), and Towering Inferno, among others. Early on in this period Trefor went on several tours of the former Soviet Union, and as a result he decided to enrol on a degree course in Russian Studies in London. Another consequence of his travels was his subsequent involvement with the Tuvan musicians, Huun-Huur-Tu after meeting Albert Kuvezin (now of Yat-Kha) in Novosobirsk, Siberia. Soon, Huun-Huur-Tu found themselves in Wales, having represented Tuva at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen. Trefor had access to a 24-track studio and the recordings they made were ultimately released as Huun-Huur-Tu’s first album, Sixty Horses in My Herd. After three years spent living in Moscow, Trefor returned to London. He has been making recordings prominently featuring Tuvan instrument igil and kobyz (a relative instrument from Kazakhstan) for some time, and it is expected that his work will be made public in the not-too-distant future.