Tag Archives: Wales
New Nostramus #Ambient Album “Mabinogia Vol One”
New Quay: Boats and Ripples
Drone Footage of New Quay Harbour a flotilla of Boats and cool ripples across Cardigan Bay.
New Quay Part Three of Three
New Quay Part Three of Three
Drone Footage of New Quay Harbour a flotilla of Boats and cool ripples across Cardigan Bay. I ventured forth on a fine but sultry day in May down to the Quay at New Quay Harbour and my good friend Jon joined me to help spot as I flew around the harbour and adjoining areas. The red boat featured at the beginning usually sails with tourists who want a peak at the Dolphins and Porpoises that often visit the Sea here. It seemed to play to drone camera by performing a wee pirouette for us. As it circled in front of us, the ripples and reflections spiralled away in ever increasing circles as the boat finally returned to it’s moorings.
It was a slow lazy day and folk just coming out of the recent lockdowns were enjoying the warmth of the early summer after a particularly cold spring. So we let ‘Buzby’ my Mini 2 drone take a slow and peaceful glide capturing the serenity of a clam day in the harbour. The Haven Holiday camps with hundreds of self catering caravans were straddling the cliffs overlooking the bay and further on beyond the rocky Llanilla Point the ‘Small Quay’ know as ‘Cei Bach’ can just be made out.
This footage was taken before Part Two of the New Quay series so the red pleasure boat still had its service dinghy attached. It can be seen speeding away towards the end of part two. Just loved the ‘trippy’ mesmerising ripples on this, best watched on at least a 1080p screen with a decent sound for full effect.
Music “Dream Nebula” by Nostramus. I wanted something that would reflect the visual ripples and was set to start afresh on a new piece. But sometimes I play back my video footage whilst randomly setting a playlist of some of my recent music and see if anything pops out. Normally one plus one equals two, we all know that but the strangeness of these things sometimes the film and the sound combine to add a completely different atmosphere, which is what happened here. So “I made it so” to quote Piccard.
The Derry Ormond Tower
Drone Footage of the Derry Ormond Tower and Beautiful Surrounding Landscape nr Lampeter Ceredigion
Built in the early 1800’s by a benefactor businessman Derry Ormond to provide employment for locals during a recession. Sadly today the tower is in a state of dissrepair and is offlimits owing to danger of collapse to the public. The crows and other birds have it to themselves as the tower still stands proud in the magnificent landscape near Lampeter in west Wales.
“The Derry Ormond Tower is a Grade II listed folly situated above Betws Bledrws, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Lampeter in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. It was built in the early nineteenth century as an unemployment relief project”. “The 127-foot-high (38.7 m) tower, which is based on an upturned cannon, was built on common land near Derry Ormond.[6] The pedestal of the column is built of coursed square rubble stone, 8.3 metres (27 ft) high and 4.3 metres (14 ft) wide. The column itself is 31.4 metres (103 ft) high and has a square plinth and a rounded base 3.8 metres (12 ft) in diameter. The column swells in the middle and has a neck ring and a now-eroded band of corbels at its top. Apparently it was surmounted by a viewing platform, but is now covered by slate slabs and consolidated in concrete. The stairway to the top had narrow loops to admit light through the shafts.” Wikipedia.
The music is an interpretation of a waltz in the form of a bollero, a rare piece written by me in the murky noughties. There was something in the mood which to my mind seemed to suit perfectly the forgotton grace of this social and historical icon within the landscape. “The Bollero of Derry Ormond”
Llangrannog – Cilborth Beach, Carreg Bica.
Drone Footage of Llangrannog – Cilborth Beach in the Sun featuring Carreg Bica a Cinematic Shamble.
A short movie of Cinematic 4K footage of spectacular scenery, involving fly rounds and other neat cinematic moves. Not necessarily in this case Hillforts or Cairns, Stone Circles etc but features within the landscape that exude a sense of ‘Genus Loci’ ~ the spirit of place. In other words very special locations that mean things to aeons of humanity and somehow give off a vibe to those sensitive enough to feel it.
Today we are flying down, down from high above from a cliff top path, I had to remind myself not to step backwards here. The tide was halfway which was enough to separate the conjoined beaches of Llangrannog and Cilborth which are joined at low tide. This is one of West Wales most iconic holiday locations, a secret best kept that is not known to many. A gem of a location with a village straddled from high down to the beach with gushing waterfalls. On The headland promontory behind is Lochtyn with an Island that again is joined to the mainland at low tide. The flat top of the headland belies an ancient Hillfort , in my opinion the summit looks flattened by our ancestors and they then built up massive banks and ditches to protect themselves from Sea and land based invaders. It’s some 500 feet above the waves. From here there occasionally can be seen Seals Dolphins and Porpoises and kind of exotic Sea bird life.
Please correct me if I am wrong but as we descend down the cliff in the earlier scenes, we can witness Sand Martins ducking in and out of their nests on the cliff side. The first beaches we visit are empty the tide is coming in and folk are urged to be mindful of the tides as they can get cut off at high tide. There are footprints that betray recent human activity. I guess the New Quay Lifeboat must occasionally get called out here to rescue folk that didn’t make the tide. As we round Cilborth beach where we witness human and canine activity, there is a rock formation called ‘Carreg Bica’ which has connotations with a local legend.
“The rock is the source of a legend that says that a giant once suffered from toothache and ripped out the offending tooth and tossed it on the ground. The rock is said to be the result of the tooth, calcified over the ages. “
The soundtrack is ‘Transversal’ by Nostramus which is an early shorter mix before the arrival of the great horned god ~ Pan, of a EP released named “Pan ~ Transversal” recently by Nostramus at Bandcamp https://nostramus.bandcamp.com/track/…
Maesycrugiau Castle and Church in West Wales
With music by Nostramus: “Optimum Singularity” a new single available at Bandcamp
Today we present another “Drone Egg” ~ What does that mean?
A “Drone Egg” is a short movie of Cinematic 4K footage of spectacular scenery, involving fly rounds and other neat cinematic moves. Not necessarily in this case Hillforts or Cairns, Stone Circles etc but features within the landscape that exude a sense of ‘Genus Loci’ ~ the spirit of place. In other words very special locations that mean things to aeons of humanity and somehow give off a vibe to those sensitive enough to feel it.
So , no messing , this is an ambient treat. Footage contains some stunningly beautiful rural views of a peaceful Church, nestling on a tree covered craggy rock on the River Teifi in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion border in the West Wales former territory of Dyfed St Luke’s Church is depicted as St Llonio’s Church on historic (1889-1905) Ordnance Survey mapping.
A motte, Llanllwni Mount is adjacent to the church, its western section ranging from 10-40m to the east and is partially obscured by the churchyard to the west. The Jones Family Mausoleum is sited in this area, and cists containing burials were encountered during its construction. I had the feeling that I was visiting a really ancient place here, yes there is the old Church, but that is built over a Medieval Motte and Bailey Castle. The Cists that were found would tend to suggest a much older origin, perhaps Bronze Age or possibly even Neolithic?? I would put money on there once also being a Hillfort on this location, which was obliterated when building the Medieval Castle.
Once upon a time the village of Maesycrugiau had a railway station on the Aberystwyth to Pencader line but today that has long gone, but traces still remain close by in the landscape. In the fair weather we have been experiencing this spring in this part of the world we took ‘Buzby’ (It’s what I affectionately call my DJI Mini 2 Drone) for a spin in this enigmatic location to hopefully catch the peace and tranquillity, far away from the polluted, noisy, busy, crowded Towns and Cities.
The so called ‘Golden Hour’ before Sunset is a photographers dream, casting warm golden colours and spreading long shadows. I particularly like the trees shapes in winter when they have lost their leaves. Using a drone really brings into focus the magnificent distorted and twisted shapes spread across the fair meadows with Sheep relentlessly chomping like there is no tomorrow. I kept hearing ‘Moo-ing’ ~ Cows no doubt but extremely close by whilst I was piloting ‘Buzby’ It was only when watching the footage back that I spotted the field 100 metres across the other side of the Gorge from the Church where I was. You can spot the young cows running up and down the field there.
For the soundtrack I present a new Nostramus ambient track ‘Optimum Singularity’ which is now released as a single .
I will be posting up more ‘Drone Eggs’ as well as more Movies in my Ynys Prydein Hillforts and ancient Ruins channel.
A drive round Llyn Brianne
Llyn Brianne is a man-made lake or reservoir in the headwaters of the River Tywi in Wales. Built in the 1960’s and finished in the early 1970’s the water provides many of South Wales larger urban centres. The dam is the tallest in the UK at 300ft (91M). The river Towy which flows through it is the longest river flowing entirely within Wales at 120 km (75 mi)
One a perfect September afternoon we primed up the Diamondseeds mobile, gathered our acutraments and set off for the mountains in West Wales. We had recently invested in a supposed HD Dashcam, which on the day we didn’t actually think about as we drove roud the lake. A lot had happened in our lives since the Coronavirus pandemic kicked off in early 2020. The lockdown had been severe for many people including ourselves gradually and dubiously over the summer the restrictions opened and we were tentatively allowed out once more. Knowing that this “freedom” may only be a brief respite before further lockdowns and dodging the showers, (yes it does rain a lot in Wales), we unleashed ourselves to explore Wales Green Desert. For us Llyn Brianne would be the first episode with many more to come. But boy what a spectacular drive.
It’s not far round the lake but we took a slow meandering drive stopping often to take in the vibes. I would imagine the hippy bus with a bunch of tripping stoners taking all year driving round this lake and convincing themselves that they were abducted and carried off to an alien planet. At least that’s what my imagination threw at me, too much Cheech and Chong in my youth I expect. Anyway the scenery here on a sunny day may not be the Himalaya or Peruvian in scale but Roerich would have been at home, every twist and turn, every scene floating by with golden sunbeams flickering off the waters below and lighting up the reddened bracken on the hillsides. Then the disasterous monoculture of the Fir plantations which sadly have now been seen to have been a grave environmental mistake as the fungus has ravaged parts of the Tywi Forest which surrounds the Llyn.
This area is also one of the last habitats in the UK of the sadly endangered Red Squirrel, although unfortunately we didn’t see any that day. Forest management have been trying to curtail the spread of the infected trees by bulldozing tree free areas, combined with a longer term plan to return the forest back to a more sustainable variety of decidious native trees. This all adds to it’s own kind of corrupted beauty in the golden hour as the Sun sunk lower, often getting in our eyes. This happaned at quite some inappropriate moments whereby my passanger felt rather uncomfortable looking overperilously close, steep drops on their side at times, but the sheep – those white fluuffy things you see everywhere in Wales – didn’t seem bothered by heights.
Anyway the road trip continued and neatly placed at regular intervals were laybays that one could pull in as many did with campervans (some with surfboards). Also dotted around were little encampments scattered here and there with a fire and hippy looking characters that looked like they got lost somewhere after Woodstock or the Isle Of White Festival or maybe the Vietnam war. My mate J reckon’s there is a lost crew of a once popular sound system lost somewhere beyond this expanse of hills, which incidently is one of the most remote and uninhabitted areas of all England and Wales. On foggy days it is often remarked that once the RAF and USAF have stopped their daily war games if you listen hard near certain standing stones it may be possible to hear the faint tomes of Hawkwind or the earthy baselines of Bob Marley or even wild techno that in its isolation from normal society had evolved into an entirely different and independant species unkown to humanity. So we are going to intrepidly explore an area that is known as a blank space to the outside world.
Daylight was rapidly drawing to a close and we had some wild moorland to traverse, in fact miles of it, before we reached anywhere near civilisation, so we had to keep moving near the end.
It was a great trip!
We will be back to explore further so if you would like to accompany us you would be more than welcome – click the video link to see this amazing journey with added music by Nostramus and friends.
Steve Spontaneous