Hen Ogledd – the band of Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington – have announced their first new album in six years, DISCOMBOBULATED.
Drawing on themes of political tumult, personal crises and mental wellbeing, work on the eight-track record began in 2024 when the band members were rallied together by for studio sessions by drummer and friend of the group Will Guthrie. The album features the voices of friends’ and band members’ children, as well as field-recorded horses and insects captured by Chris Watson and David Reid.
Among the other contributions to appear on DISCOMBOBULATED are the drumming of Guthrie; spoken word from Matana Roberts, Truly Kaput, C. Spencer Yeh and Circle’s Janne Westerlund; saxophone from Fay MacCalman; trumpet from Nate Wooley; and flute from Davies’ daughter Elliw.
In a statement, the group’s Sally Pilkington said: “Maybe Hen Ogledd is more like a family than a band. There’s something really special about having kids’ voices in the music.”
Hen Ogledd have marked the announcement of the new album by sharing lead single ‘Scales will fall’, alongside a video for the song, which you can watch below.
The track alludes to protest history – such as the women at Greenham Common and Durham Miners’ Gala – as well as current efforts to stand up against corporate greed. Dawn Bothwell, whose vocals appear on the song, said: “Although I love hip hop, I want to make it clear that I’m drawing more on the spoken word tradition. I made up this term ‘Bard rap’; that’s more how I think of it.”
Weird World will release DISCOMBOBULATED on February 20, 2026.
