Treasure Seeker

Welsh electro musician Gwenno is no stranger to crafting songs in the Cornish tongue and she revisits this on her third solo album, Tresor. Prog catches up with her to discuss the unusual mixture of Japanese anime soundtracks, Ennio Morricone, Enya and early krautrock that’s influenced her latest Mercury Prize-nominated record.

Words: Rob Hughes

When it comes to popular culture, Cornish-language records are pretty thin on the ground. But Gwenno Saunders is doing her damnedest to put that right. The singer-songwriter’s new album, Tresor, is sung almost entirely in Kernewek, Cornwall’s revived tongue. A rapturous piece of work it is too, its lyrical unfamiliarity only serving to deepen the strange beauty and rich textures of the music. It’s a rare treasure, as its title implies. “I really wanted to make something that was about exploring quite intimate emotions, desires, all of those things,” explains Gwenno. “And I felt like Cornish was this perfect vessel for me to do that, because it feels so natural. The language has shaped who I am and I’m sort of growing with it. And it’s just a beautiful language. It’s…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 133

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