Jakokoyak

Jakokoyak (real name Rhys Edwards) is a Welsh musician who produces lo-fi experimental electronic music, with leanings towards psychedelic folk, sometimes classified as folktronica. Edwards also co-runs the label Peski Records. He is married to musician Gwenno Saunders and lives in Cardiff.^[1]

Career

A native of Mold, Flintshire, Edwards began recording in his second year of university. Working and recording alone, he began exploring old keyboards and effects pedals. It was these recordings that subsequently gave him the passport to a postgraduate music course at Bangor. Without an academic background in music, he spent a year building on his knowledge of recording, and it was during this year that Jakokoyak started to get noticed in the Welsh media.

In 2003 he released his debut album, Am Cyfan Dy Pethau Prydferth (the title was taken from a badly translated poster on the walls of the Cardiff Union^[2]). In the same year he won a Pop Factory award for Best New Talent, and Am Cyfan... was awarded Best Album at BBC Radio Cymru's music awards.

Since then he has supported the Super Furry Animals in Japan, and performed at the Maida Vale Studios with Mogwai. The EP Flatyre was released in 2006, and its lead track "Eira" was voted Record of the Week on London's Xfm radio station.

An italo disco influenced single was released in 2008, titled "Look Away Now (If You Don't Want to Know the Score)" before Jakokoyak entered the studio to record his second album, Aerophlot, which was not formally released until August 2010. Basing the musical ideas on those technicolour childhood memories coupled with tales of breakups and downbeat days, its conception has been described by Jakokoyak as similar to “watching a fireworks display in the rain with the blind”. The result is a downtempo album full of wondrous electronic bleeps and beautifully eerie pop melodies. It contained tales about an abandoned Ukrainian city (Prypiat), the first dog in space (Laika), Yuri Gagarin's very own postcode (Moscow 705) and a private seaside in Sweden (Amine). The album received musical supervision from Cardiff legend Sir Doufus Styles and features contributions from Super Furry Animals/The Peth's Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce and backing vocals from Cate Le Bon.

Discography

Albums

• Am Cyfan Dy Pethau Prydferth (August 2003; Japanese re-release August 2004)
• Aerophlot (August 2010)

EPs

• Flatyre (March 2006)
• Look Away Now (If You Don't Want to Know the Score) (November 2008)

Compilations

• A Step in the Left Direction (Boobytrap Records) (August 2001)
• New Welsh Talent 2003 - Music Week Magazine (August 2003)
• Gigs, Chips a 'Trip' Mewn Tacsi! (August 2004)
• Dan y Cownter (August 2005)
• Folk Off! (Sunday Best label) (July 2006)
• "Rallye Cloak 03: Goodbye Blue Monday (Rallye Records, JAPAN)" (October 2008)
• Respond (Amgueddfa Cymru) (March 2009)

References

External links

• Jakokoyak on Twitter
  
• Soundcloud page