A prolific figure on the U.K. indie pop scene, songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Carwyn Ellis is perhaps best known for Colorama, a psychedelic-leaning project that has touched on soul, electro-pop, chamber pop, singer/songwriter folk, and experimentalism while keeping melodic pop at its core. The group's first album, Cookie Zoo, saw release in 2008. Colorama's least eclectic release to date was 2017's Some Things Just Take Time, a spare tribute to classic American songwriters. Also known for his collaborations with Edwyn Collins and as a member of the Pretenders' touring band, he made his full-length debut under his own name with the Brazilian pop-influenced Joia in 2019, following seven Colorama albums. The like-minded Mas appeared in 2021. As a studio musician and producer, he has also worked with artists ranging from Oasis and Garbage to Saint Etienne and Gemma Ray.

Born Carwyn Meurig Ellis in 1973, he was raised mostly in Anglesey. Later referring to the Beatles as his first love, he was a record collector from a young age and headed to London at 18 to study at the Royal Academy of Music. While there, Ellis preferred moonlighting in bands to formal practice. Some of his earliest collaborations were with rock groups North Mississippi Allstars and Southern Fly. He contributed piano and Mellotron to Garbage's 1999 album The World Is Not Enough and played on multiple albums by the Allstars before contributing guitars and percussion to Edwyn Collins' 2007 LP Home Again.

By then based in Cardiff, Ellis recorded his first Colorama album, Cookie Zoo, with bandmates David Page and Luca Guernieri. It was released in 2008, at first only in Japan on Noise McCartney Records. The same year, their official debut single, "Sound," arrived on the U.K.'s Redbricks Recordings. Colorama accepted an invitation to play at Glastonbury in the summer of 2009, and that September they released Magic Lantern Show, an album with both English- and Welsh-language songs. After appearing on Edwyn Collins' September 2010 release, Losing Sleep (alongside guests including the Smiths' Johnny Marr, Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame, and members of Franz Ferdinand), Colorama's third LP, Box, was issued by Noise McCartney (Japan) and See Monkey Do Monkey Recordings (U.K.) in October. The Christmas EP Cerdyn Nadolig ("Christmas Card") followed that December. In 2011, they released the mostly Welsh Llyfr Lliwio ("Coloring Book"), and with production by Edwyn Collins and Sebastian Lewsley, Good Music arrived on AED Records in 2012.

Wonderfulsound reissued Colorama's existing catalog in late 2013, making Cookie Zoo available in Europe for the first time. The EP Heaven's Hotel followed in March 2014, and the full-length Temari arrived three months later on AED Records. In the meantime, Ellis, Collins, and Lewsley had reunited for the soundtrack to The Possibilities Are Endless, a documentary about Collins' stroke and struggle to regain his memory. The soundtrack was released in November 2014, the same month Wonderfulsound issued a collection of Colorama's Welsh-language songs, Dere Mewn! That year, Ellis also played on albums by Roddy Frame, Pete Molinari, and Gemma Ray. Ellis began recording the seventh Colorama studio album in 2015 after releasing a mostly instrumental synth record, Soft Rains, under the alias Zarelli. It was nominated for a Welsh Music Prize.

In 2016, Bendith, a collaboration between Ellis and indie folk trio Plu (Elan, Gwilym, and Marged Rhys), released a self-titled EP, and Ellis played keyboards for the Pretenders album Alone, also joining their touring lineup. After an unprecedented -- for Colorama -- three-year gap between records, Some Things Just Take Time, a stripped-down tribute to American songwriting influences, arrived in 2017. That year, Ellis contributed songwriting, production, and mixing to Saint Etienne's Home Counties.

Ellis' first album under his own name, Joia, arrived in 2019. Credited to Carwyn Ellis Rio 18, it was recorded in Rio de Janeiro with collaborators including Domenico Lancellotti, Kassin, and Shawn Lee. That year, Ellis co-wrote two songs for and performed on the Collins album Badbea, and played on releases by the Rails and Fabienne Delsol. Another Colorama full-length, Chaos Wonderland, followed in 2020, with the second Carwyn Ellis Rio 18 long-player, Mas, appearing in early 2021. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi