A UNIQUE fusion of classic silent cinema and contemporary Welsh psych met with an ebullient crowd for Pontio’s celebration of independent pioneer Maya Deren, writes Duncan Rieder (PLEASE BOLD).

Occupying the second slot for the Psylence 2018 festival’s Friday night line up, rising Carmarthen three piece Adwaith were right at home on the Pontio stage.

Now in its second year, Psylence offers a myriad of bands and musicians silent film as a blank canvas to forge a truly fresh cinematic experience - creating an air of tangible air of excitement in appreciative audience.

Fittingly for the night's revisit of 1940s experimental director Deren, Hollie Singer, Gwenllian Anthony and Heledd Owen began proceedings by rising from the crowd to the stage in complete silence indicative of the understated, no nonsense performance to follow.

Less than the perhaps expected - and hackneyed - Dark Side of the Moon meets The Wizard of Oz effect, the band refuse to be rigidly confined by the runtime of each of the three shorts At Land, Meshes of the Afternoon and Ritual in Transfigured Time.

Instead, the bands mercurial sound - equal parts foreboding synth and fierce choppy guitars- captured the mood of the surreal and unique shifting scenes of each.

While it must certainly be difficult to sync up perfectly with three different films, Adwaith nevertheless managed to turn even a tuning before the end of the runtime of the first short work perfectly with the retreating footsteps in the sand of Deren herself.

In a year that has seen them establish themselves on the Green Man stage and release their EP Melyn, Psylence offered North Wales a chance to catch this exciting band on their ascendancy.

Psylence returns to Pontio next year.