MACHYNLLETH Male Voice Choir will be among the choirs appearing at the Royal Albert Hall in London this Saturday, October 13, at the 26th London Welsh Festival of Males Voice Choirs.

The choir are also busy promoting their debut "Cor Meinion Machynlleth" album in the Sain Records label.

The choir are one of the most recently formed ensembles around when PE teacher Aled Myrddin was asked by friends to form a new male voice choir for the town in 2015 in readiness for the National Eisteddfod when it came to Montgomeryshire the following year.

They are also a fairly young choir with most of the nearly 30 members aged between 20 and 40 years ago.

At the 2015 National Eisteddfod they won a second place and have since won first prize at the 2017 Eisteddfod and well as the 2017 S4C Cor Cymru compeition male voice choir section,

Next April will be performing at the Ontario Welsh Festival in Canada.

They meet at the Machynlleth Community Church every Monday and recorded the CD at Y Tabernacl.

Musical director Aled shines as solo lead on the choir's CD on a version of the stirring "Bui Di" from the musical "Miss Saigon".

Aeron Pughes takes lead on the album's light-hearted bonus song "Cor Gore Dre" which he co-wrote with Aled and which features electric guitar by Aled.

Professional accompanist Menna Griffiths' piano draws you gently into the graceful opening "Y Goleuni" and the choir range easily from Welsh to Englksh and back again with spot-on vocals as you would expect across the 15 tracks.

Another show tune included is a bubbling "There is Nothing Like a Dame" from "South Pacific" while other Engliush songs include a fairly sober rendering of the rollicking sea shanty "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor."

Aled Wyn Davies and Eryl Jones provide a duet on the classic Welsh traditional "Dafydd Y Garreg Wen" with other tracks including a Welsh version of "Walls of Jericho", "Ave Maria" and more reverent sounding songs such as "Ubi Caritas", and a stirring "Gwinllan a Roddwyn".