Streaming past the countryside in the midst of unexpected pre-Spring sunshine with sound of The Gentle Good in your ears is something of an abstract experience. Echoing and referencing the very surroundings you are rushing past Tethered For The Storm delves into the heart of open air exposure, scattering its songs with an outdoor soundtrack of crushing waves and blustering wind. Yet the images delicately painted within the album are not those of the southbound commuter line from London, rather the more specific wilderness of Wales.

Both The Gentle Good and Tethered For The Storm are distinctly and proudly Welsh. Under this one-man moniker, The Gentle Good is Gareth Bonello’s vehicle for his brand of soothing bilingual folk. Weaving dark tales with stories of modern Cardiff living, with his latest release Bonello builds on the work of his 2008 debut While You Slept I Went Walking and from the opening track ‘Aubade’ Bonello demonstrates his dedication to the Welsh language and his heritage that this is continued throughout the release.

Although The Gentle Good’s live set up usually consists of just Bonello and his guitar, he is a skilled multi-instrumentalist and occasionally performs alongside a string quartet and backing band. Both these additional musical elements are incorporated onto the album, and soaring strings and the luscious notes of a harp and piano can often be found beneath Bonello’s rich voice.

On top of these instrumental extras, Welsh songstresses Lisa Jen of 9Bach and the wonderfully voiced Cate Le Bon add their distinct vocals to The Gentle Good’s 60s folk revival. From the traditional, a cappella duet ‘Deuawd’ through to Cate’s collaboration on second track ‘Colled’ right up until album closer ‘Cysgod y Dur’ the often lyricless female melodies that flow through the songs help to illuminate the fact that despite half of The Gentle Good’s songs being sung in his native Celtic tongue, they are far from inaccessible to those unfamiliar with the language.

The album’s title track is the only instrumental song on the record, and is one such track that showcases the singer’s outstanding musicianship and skill with his fast finger-picking, as the song gathers pace and momentum. Elsewhere Bonello showcases the culture of his everyday surroundings with a commonplace soundtrack. Whether it’s the crashing of waves and wind on his modern take on a sea shanty with ‘The Ocean Is King’ or the workshop-like clanking of metal on ‘Cysgod y Dur’ Bonello’s attention to detail and ability to capture his audiences imagination amongst an otherwise softly-spoken soundscape is to be applauded.

With its consistent slow pace and soft dynamics, the album title’s eponymous storm is certainly not overtly visible here. Instead what we’re presented with is an aura of relative calm. Standout track, the soft and delicate ‘Holly Blue’ is the epitome of this quietude, and details our author’s prolonged search for the elusive titular butterfly. Surrounding his story with a score of sweeping strings, underpinned by Bonello’s repetitive guitar strumming, both the lyrical narrative and the interchanging dynamics encircling the central melody take the listener on another journey – further testament to Bonello’s ability to transport his listeners away from their current environs to somewhere tranquil and otherworldly.

Alongside other current reigning Cardiff-based musicians such as H. Hawkline, Sweet Baboo and Rhodri Viney, The Gentle Good is contributing to carving out the city’s own new collective of folk-steeped psychedelia that is both thoroughly Welsh, yet thoroughly contemporary. Although Tethered For The Storm is probably not going to burst onto anyone’s musical radar with the urgency that its title hints at, it is an album that is certain to glide into people’s sonic subconscious as gently and wonderfully as Gareth Bonello’s alias suggests.