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A square cover with smoke-like amber and grey-violet curls across an ivory ground, alongside Welsh and English lettering at right.

400 × 397 px · JPEG · The full frame
Sain (Recordiau) Cyf. · CC BY-SA 3.0

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MUSIC ARTWORK / SAIN

Ol Y Fflam

Dafydd Dafis/pwyll Ap Sion

Album artwork for Dafydd Dafis/pwyll Ap Sion, provided through the SAIN Records collection on Wikimedia Commons.

A CLOSER LOOK / 01

Inside the image.

A square cover with a pale ivory background, covered across most of its surface by fine, flowing lines that curl and billow like smoke or ink dispersing in water. The largest swirls gather in the lower-left quadrant, where charcoal, grey and muted violet strands loop into dense, cloud-like eddies. From the upper left, warm ochre and amber lines sweep diagonally towards the centre, thinning into delicate wisps. Further grey-brown curls rise and fold through the upper middle and right, leaving a relatively open, light area behind the lettering at the top right. The lines overlap and vary in density, creating a sense of layered depth without depicting a clearly identifiable object or scene. There is no visible border.

The title and other lettering occupy the upper-right area. At the top, “Dafydd Dafis” appears in dark, bold serif lettering. Directly below, “GYDA PWYLL AP SIÔN” is set in smaller, uppercase dark serif type. Beneath that, “ÔL Y FFLAM” is the largest inscription: tall uppercase letters in a warm ochre-orange, with ample spacing. A smaller block of dark text sits in the lower-right quadrant, aligned towards the right: “Clasuron / Cyfoes / Poblogaidd”, followed by the italicised English words “Popular / Contemporary / Welsh / Classics”. The lettering is crisp and stands apart from the delicate, hazy linework, while the pale ground keeps both text and flowing forms legible. The image has a drawn or digitally rendered appearance, with fine, translucent-looking strands and softly blended colour rather than solid shapes.

ASSOCIATIONS & IMPRESSIONS / 02

What the image evokes.

The cover’s wisps suggest smoke after a fire, but the image never settles into a literal plume: its lines curl back on themselves, branch, and gather into something closer to weather or a shifting current. The warm amber sweep from the upper left meets the cooler, darker whirlpool below, giving the composition a quiet tension between heat and shadow, dispersal and return.

The pale, open ground makes the linework feel suspended, almost weightless. At the same time, the dense knots in the lower left have a gravitational pull, like a storm seen through cloud or a marbled surface caught in motion. The effect is delicate but not serene throughout; the finer strands feel fragile, while the larger coils carry a more turbulent energy. The clear, formal lettering adds a measured, bookish counterpoint to these loose forms, as though a carefully arranged title has been placed over something still unfurling.

Associations are subjective readings, rather than documented influences or statements of the artist’s intention.

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These visual notes are offered under CC BY 4.0. Credit dbcovers, link to the source, keep the licence information and indicate any changes.

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Lettering & observation notes
  • Dafydd Dafis — Top right
  • GYDA PWYLL AP SIÔN — Upper right, below the first line
  • ÔL Y FFLAM — Upper right, below the second line
  • Clasuron — Lower right
  • Cyfoes — Lower right, below “Clasuron”
  • Poblogaidd — Lower right, below “Cyfoes”
  • Popular — Lower right, below the Welsh text
  • Contemporary — Lower right, below “Popular”
  • Welsh — Lower right, below “Contemporary”
  • Classics — Lower right, below “Welsh”
BACK TO THE SOURCE / 03

Artwork sources & licence.

CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗

Credit the author and source, link to the licence and indicate any changes. Share adaptations under compatible terms. Read the full licence for details.

Source year
2006
Source author field
Sain (Records) Ltd
Attribution
Sain (Recordiau) Cyf.
Collection
SAIN / Wikimedia Commons
Catalogue number
SAIN SCD 2514
Source
Wikimedia Commons file page ↗
Permission evidence
Public VRT notice: 2017050910011681
Source checked
20 October 2026

Year as recorded on the source file page; it may not represent the work’s first release. File unchanged; browser preview scaled proportionally.