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Sain (Recordiau) Cyf. · CC BY-SA 3.0
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Y Ddau Lais
John ac Alun
Album artwork for John ac Alun, provided through the SAIN Records collection on Wikimedia Commons.
Inside the image.
The square cover is divided by a large, pale central shape resembling two human profiles facing one another. Their noses and lips project towards the middle, leaving a narrow gap between the faces. The profiles are cropped by the top and bottom edges and occupy most of the image, their light cream and blush-pink surfaces set against a dark, mottled background. A narrow strip of pale, wood-like horizontal grain runs across the upper centre between the heads; elsewhere the pale shape has faint streaks and a softly speckled, uneven finish.
The background is split into contrasting areas: vivid green and turquoise texture fills the left edge and upper-left corner, while deep teal and blue-black cover the right and much of the lower half. Small irregular flecks and patches across both areas suggest a rough, organic surface. The profiles create an almost symmetrical central silhouette, but the background colours differ on either side. The image has no visible border.
Large, narrow white lettering reading “Y DDAU LAIS” sits across the upper-right quadrant, over the dark blue field. Beneath it, two smaller lines of pale yellow-green Welsh text read “Casgliad gwych” and “o ddeuawdau poblogaidd”. A compact block of performer names occupies the lower-left portion of the pale shape, set in small purple uppercase letters and centred in short lines. The names are separated by vertical bars, with a final line of spaced dots around “A MWY...”.
What the image evokes.
The two profiles make the cover feel like a meeting held in silhouette: close enough for a conversation or a kiss, yet separated by a slim, deliberate interval. The arrangement gives the title a place to hover beside that encounter, as though the words belong to the dark space around the faces rather than to either one alone.
The pale, grainy centre against the richly coloured, rough-edged fields has something of a cut-paper collage or a weathered mural. Green on one side and blue on the other lend the image an elemental quality, like opposing currents or two landscapes pressed together. The softened surface keeps the composition from feeling purely graphic; its mottling and streaks suggest something handled, aged or rubbed into being. There is an intimacy in the shared profile shape, but also a coolness in the deep blue expanse, leaving the image balanced between closeness and distance.
Associations are subjective readings, rather than documented influences or statements of the artist’s intention.
Read. Share. Reimagine.
These visual notes are offered under CC BY 4.0. Credit dbcovers, link to the source, keep the licence information and indicate any changes.
Ready-to-use attribution
Other attribution formats are allowed when reasonable for the medium and context. The artwork has its own separate licence.
Lettering & observation notes
- Y DDAU LAIS — Large white title in the upper-right quadrant
- Casgliad gwych — First line of smaller pale green text beneath the title
- o ddeuawdau poblogaidd — Second line beneath the title subtitle
- TONY AC ALOMA — Top line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- RYAN A RONNIE — Second line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- JOHN AC ALUN — Third line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- ROSALIND A MYRDDIN | IONA AC ANDY — Fourth line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- KAREN A WIL TÂN | DYLAN A NEIL — Fifth line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- ALED A REG | VERNON A GWYNFOR — Sixth line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- Y BRODYR GREGORY | GWENDA A GEINOR — Seventh line of the performer list in the lower-left area
- A MWY... — Final line of the performer list in the lower-left area
Artwork sources & licence.
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
- 2013
- Source author field
- Sain (Records) Ltd
- Attribution
- Sain (Recordiau) Cyf.
- Collection
- SAIN / Wikimedia Commons
- Catalogue number
- Sain SCD 2691
- 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.