wo weeks previous to this gig, Gwenno was one of many nominees for the 2022 Mercury Prize, which was cancelled with solely hours’ discover because of the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. The ceremony is but to be rescheduled, and if any of the judges occurred to be in attendance at her Village Underground gig on Tuesday night time, they may simply have been supplied with an additional nudge handy it her manner.
The half-Welsh, half-Cornish artist was nominated for third album Tresor, which noticed her sing virtually totally within the Cornish language and inform tales previous and new from her homeland with reverence and keenness. The report adopted 2014 debut Y Dydd Olaf (sung primarily in Welsh) and 2018 observe up Le Kov, each of which offered an artist deeply obsessed with her two properties and their histories.
A couple of songs into the Shoreditch gig, the bubbling performer requested the group: “Do you ever need to know what the songs are about? I by no means know whether or not I ought to hold all of it a thriller!” The nice and cozy response that adopted led Gwenno to then clarify just a little in regards to the songs – in addition to their English translations – earlier than every monitor was carried out, and the additional that means gleaned from the reasons that adopted gave the group a greater sense of their robust foundational settings and put them proper within the Welsh rivers and Cornish countryside she sang of.
From there, she led us by means of a “love letter to know-how” on the attractive Jynn-Amontya (that means pc in Cornish), the deeply atmospheric Tonnow (that means ‘waves’, and about “the spirit of the ocean seducing you into the very backside”) and stirring penultimate music Chwyldro (‘revolution’), which folded out into an prolonged jam earlier than ending with a cacophonous noise led by Gwenno’s impassioned roars.
Among the many whimsical tales of nature and countryside, there was additionally time for each humorous and political moments within the present. On Eus Keus? (translating as “Is there cheese?”) she led the group by means of a giddy Cornish chant about her deep want for this specific meals. Its refrain goes: “Is there cheese? Is there or isn’t there? If there’s cheese, deliver cheese, and if there isn’t cheese – deliver what’s simple!”
Simply minutes later, she was working by means of N.Y.C.A.W. (Nid Yw Cymru Ar Werth, translating as Wales Is Not For Sale), with the slogan adorning the display behind her. When, on the monitor’s apex, the message modified to ‘The NHS is just not on the market’, a political energy joined arms with quirky storytelling.
Ending with a music by fellow Cornish artist Richard Gendel – “the very best folks songwriter in Britain that no-one’s ever heard of,” mentioned Gwenno – her clear admiration for her twin properties, and the tales she sung about them, shone by means of on an evening of training and adulation. Such have been the depth and vividness of her tales that it was virtually a shock when returning outdoors to the muggy late summer time London air.
Supply hyperlink
