Biography
Welsh producer Benjamin Ian Powell originated the isolationist dark ambient project Llyn y Cwn, whose name translates to "Lake of the Dogs." Following more than twenty years of activity under assorted pseudonyms, he attained his foremost career breakthrough through a signing with cult label Cold Spring for the 2019 album Twll Du.
Powell, born in North Wales, launched his recording career in 1998 under the alias Mank and sold handmade CD-Rs directly online via his independent Manky Music label. Mank’s catalog, which surpasses ten albums, fused soothing ambient drones and new age melodies together with crunchy IDM beats. He further participated in two albums by the experimental trio Micrographia. During this period his daytime occupation as an electronics technician at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences carried him on extended sea voyages into the Arctic; whenever possible he also retreated into the mountains surrounding his North Wales home. Both environments filled him with awe and supplied field recordings that later entered his music.
While the Mank project continued, Powell inaugurated Llyn y Cwn in 2009, taking the name from a remote lake high in Snowdonia’s Glyder Mountains. The material issued under this heading adopted a markedly colder, dark ambient character. A succession of numbered EPs and albums reached its peak with the release of his most accomplished work to date, Twll Du (“Black Hole”), titled after a forbidding rocky cleft in the cliffs beside the lake. Although first self-released, the album was subsequently adopted by cult label Cold Spring for a 2019 reissue that introduced Powell to an even larger audience.
Powell, born in North Wales, launched his recording career in 1998 under the alias Mank and sold handmade CD-Rs directly online via his independent Manky Music label. Mank’s catalog, which surpasses ten albums, fused soothing ambient drones and new age melodies together with crunchy IDM beats. He further participated in two albums by the experimental trio Micrographia. During this period his daytime occupation as an electronics technician at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences carried him on extended sea voyages into the Arctic; whenever possible he also retreated into the mountains surrounding his North Wales home. Both environments filled him with awe and supplied field recordings that later entered his music.
While the Mank project continued, Powell inaugurated Llyn y Cwn in 2009, taking the name from a remote lake high in Snowdonia’s Glyder Mountains. The material issued under this heading adopted a markedly colder, dark ambient character. A succession of numbered EPs and albums reached its peak with the release of his most accomplished work to date, Twll Du (“Black Hole”), titled after a forbidding rocky cleft in the cliffs beside the lake. Although first self-released, the album was subsequently adopted by cult label Cold Spring for a 2019 reissue that introduced Powell to an even larger audience.
Albums
