{"title":"Gwenno","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGwenno is a British dancer and artist born on 23 May 1981 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. She started her career as a Welsh-Cornish dancer before transitioning into a successful solo artist. One of her notable achievements includes singing in the Cornish language. Her third album, \"Le Kov\" (2022), was recently shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Mercury Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"le-kov","title":"Le Kov","description":"\u003cp\u003eWritten entirely in Cornish, \u003ci\u003eLe Kov\u003c\/i\u003e is exploration of the subconscious, the myths and drolls of Cornwall, and the survival of Britain’s lesser known Brythonic language. As one of the language’s few fluent speakers, Gwenno felt a duty to create a document of a living language, explore her identity and the endless creative possibilities of a tongue that has a very small surviving artistic output. She dove deep into research, learning about attempts to protect and progress the language and the role of women throughout Cornish history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvoking the music of her childhood – Brenda Wootton, Alan Stivell, BUCCA – along with Broadcast, The United States of America, White Noise and Serge Gainsbourg, \u003ci\u003eLe Kov\u003c\/i\u003e is shimmering and tarnished, rust mingled with barnacles, moss entwined with weathered rope. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Light Blue Coloured Vinyl with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD - Digipack.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heavenly Recordings","offers":[{"title":"Blue | LP","offer_id":50411085529419,"sku":"1023631","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50411084742987,"sku":"1023630","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50411086250315,"sku":"1052659","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a5960408-5932-459e-b8e7-12b838913119_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726652486"},{"product_id":"tresor","title":"Tresor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTresor\u003c\/strong\u003e (Treasure) is \u003cstrong\u003eGwenno Saunders\u003c\/strong\u003e’ third full length solo album and the second almost entirely in Cornish (Kernewek). Written in St. Ives, Cornwall, just prior to the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and completed at home in Cardiff during the pandemic along with her co-producer and musical collaborator, Rhys Edwards, \u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e reveals an introspective focus on home and self, a prescient work echoing the isolation and retreat that has been a central, global shared experience over the past two years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e diverges from the stark themes of technological alienation in \u003cem\u003eY Dydd Olaf\u003c\/em\u003e (The Final Day) and the meditations on the idea of the homeland on the slyly infectious \u003cem\u003eLe Kov\u003c\/em\u003e (The Place of Memory). \u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e evokes the waters that shape the Cornish experience, whilst being musically far reaching with influences spanning from Ryuichi Sakamoto to Eden Ahbez and William Basinski. As psychedelically tinged as her previous work, \u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e embeds found sounds ranging from Venice to Vienna, layering cultural and historical atmospheres, decoupling the use of Cornish from any geographic determinism, allowing for an expression of imaginative spaces that are truly free.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough \u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e is a project birthed from introspection and intimacy, the implications of the messages are much broader. Ultimately \u003cstrong\u003eGwenno\u003c\/strong\u003e is asking what are other ways of understanding and being in relation to one's self and to one another? What are our roles in both shaping and being shaped by the cultures we move in, in a world that is ever changing, and where we all have a place? \u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e does not provide easy answers, for \u003cstrong\u003eGwenno\u003c\/strong\u003e shows us that we exist in paradox, our threads of place and story entwined like knotwork, our many selves shining as beautiful entanglements.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heavenly Recordings","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50429057892683,"sku":"1147378","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50429051371851,"sku":"1147377","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50429055107403,"sku":"1147376","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/bf682f97-9376-49af-bb81-cae7f97e87f9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726837391"},{"product_id":"y-dydd-olaf","title":"Y Dydd Olaf","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eY Dydd Olaf\u003c\/i\u003e was initially released by Peski Records in October 2014 before being re-released worldwide in 2015 by Heavenly Recordings. The album was an attempt by Gwenno to combine her political views with sounds she loves and was inspired in part by a dystopian science fiction book of the same name by Owain Owain which was released in 1976. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In a period of governmental and cultural revolution, former Pipettes front-woman, Gwenno, releases a political concept album inspired by an obscure 1970s Welsh language sci-fi novel, subtly disguised as a blissful kraut-pop record. Taking its cue, and title, from Owain Owain's 1976 novel about a dystopian future where the robots have taken over and are busily turning the human race into clones through the use of medication, \u003ci\u003eY Dydd Olaf\u003c\/i\u003e blends big themes (including patriarchal society, government-funded media propaganda, cultural control, technology, isolation and the importance of, and threat to minority languages), great tunes, and a real sense of revolution to produce a powerful, politically-charged concept album.\u003ci\u003e Y Dydd Olaf\u003c\/i\u003e is a political, feminist, brilliantly executed record; and although this particular revolution might not be televised, it certainly will have a great soundtrack.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heavenly Recordings","offers":[{"title":"Clear LP","offer_id":50480287056203,"sku":"2027351","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50480285417803,"sku":"389513","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50480286237003,"sku":"389512","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/34e99121-a9ae-4b22-9819-79a5e5815c8f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727518042"},{"product_id":"utopia","title":"Utopia","description":"\u003cp\u003eHaving released three albums in Welsh and Cornish, \u003cstrong\u003eGwenno Saunders\u003c\/strong\u003e’ first album recorded predominantly in English, \u003cem\u003eUtopia\u003c\/em\u003e, presents a very different side to her life and songwriting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eForty-three years into her life, Saunders has been many people. The disaffected Cardiff schoolgirl; the teenage Las Vegas dancer; the singer in indie pop group The Pipettes. There was a turn in a Bollywood film, a nightclub tour, a stint cleaning floors in an East London pub. Long before she would become an acclaimed solo songwriter in both Welsh and Cornish, a winner of the Welsh Music Prize, a nominee for the Mercury, a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh, there were the days of Nevada, London, Brighton; of Irish dancing, techno clubs, messiness, and chaos.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUtopia\u003c\/em\u003e, Saunders’ fourth solo album, is an extraordinary exploration of all of these selves. If the singer regards her first three solo records — 2014’s \u003cem\u003eY Dydd Olaf\u003c\/em\u003e, 2018’s \u003cem\u003eLe Kov\u003c\/em\u003e, and 2022’s \u003cem\u003eTresor\u003c\/em\u003e as “childhood records”, rooted in her upbringing, her parents, her formative identity, then \u003cem\u003eUtopia\u003c\/em\u003e captures a time of self-determination and experimentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese are songs of discovery, of the years between being someone's daughter and becoming someone's wife and someone's mother. They range from floor-fillers to piano ballads, via contributions from \u003cstrong\u003eCate Le Bon\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eH. Hawkline\u003c\/strong\u003e, and encompass \u003cem\u003eWilliam Blake\u003c\/em\u003e, a favorite \u003cem\u003eEdrica Huws\u003c\/em\u003e poem, and the Number 73 bus. It is her finest work to date.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heavenly Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":51580232761675,"sku":"R8423-4297","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Pink","offer_id":51580232794443,"sku":"R8423-8071","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Screenshot2025-04-04at15.35.02.png?v=1743777316"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_91242a7d_thumbnail_4096_7718d31b-c2fa-4dc5-9ec1-62d181399762.jpg?v=1726652441","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/gwenno.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}