WELSH folk-rock band 9Bach will debut a new collaboration with acclaimed actress Maxine Peake when they appear at this year's FOCUS Wales festival in Wrexham.

Yn dy lais / In your voice was commissioned by FOCUS Wales festival, via PRS Foundation for the New Music Biennial 2019 at London’s Southbank Centre and in Hull in July of this year.

But lucky festival-goers will get the chance to see the first performance of the work, which also features former Ysgol Maes Garmon pupil and actor Rhys Ifans and former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel, when the band give the debut performance of the piece as part of their headline set at St Giles Church in Wrexham, during FOCUS Wales.

The composition will contain words sung in the Welsh language, but will also feature a spoken word piece performed in English by Peake which will voice an interpretation of the song's meaning.

A spokesperson for 9Bach said: "As a Welsh language band we’ve always tried to be inclusive of a non-Welsh speaking audience. We don’t see that language in music should be a barrier at all, but it helps if you can have a picture in your mind whilst listening. We came up with this idea to tell the story without giving a literal translation of the song, which would be challenging, as many Welsh words don’t naturally translate. That is the beauty of language.

"This project joins writers, actors, poets and musicians, who were invited to express their own interpretation of a song. We explained what each song was about and the writers were asked to retell the story using the emotion, sentiment, themes, and, sometimes, parts of the original story.

"For anyone who can’t understand the Welsh language, these interpretations will paint a picture of the songs from which they are inspired. For Welsh speakers they will, hopefully, add an extra dimension."

9Bach play FOCUS Wales on Thursday May 16 at St. Giles Parish Church, Wrexham.

Three day festival wristbands and individual tickets for 9Bach concert are available from www.focuswales.com/tickets