The third single from Gwenno’s forthcoming full-length, Y Dydd Olaf (‘The Last Day’), the hypnotic ‘Calon Peiriant’ deals with war propaganda. As the electronic pop artist explains in an upcoming interview with tQ: "The whole point is that you need to go to the heart of the machine to know and understand what sort of destruction has been created throughout history. And that the truth lies within sharing information. This age we live in is the first time I’ve ever had the feeling that I’m being told lies. That everything that you hear and see through state television and radio is the complete opposite to what you see on social media where people are sharing information about what’s actually happening. We have power now because of this but it’s not something that’s going to last forever. The verses say, ‘Is the body decomposing? Is the technology in the hands of the right people? The ones that are responsible, or is it in the hands of people that are irresponsible?’"
Y Dydd Olaf is heavily inspired by nuclear scientist Owain Owain’s 1976 sci-fi novel of the same name. The book focuses on a society where everyone is being turned into a robot. The main character is able to document the proceedings via a diary he keeps in Welsh, which the machines can’t understand.
The double A-side of ‘Calon Peiriant’ is ‘Fratolisch Hiang Perpeshski’, a song with a huge sense of intent, power and action – have a listen below. The title is a nonsense phrase from the novel that the main character repeats when he himself begins to turn into a machine and can no longer write anything other than jibberish. Gwenno elaborates: "There’s this place they all get sent to called The Twilight Home and I reference that in the song. The chorus is like, ‘Come and dance in the house of the twilight, to songs that are pointless and mean nothing’. It’s really also what I feel about a lot of contemporary pop music. There’s a lot of emptiness at the moment in pop music which is really dystopian. I actually don’t think a lot of it means to be but it is."
‘Calon Peiriant’/’Fratolisch Hiang Perpeshski’ is released on ace Cardiff label Peski on October 6. The digital release of full-length Y Dydd Olaf will follow on October 27 with CDs and vinyl available from November 10. The album is this writer’s favourite electronic pop record of 2014, and that’s without even being able to understand a word of the entirely Welsh and Cornish lyrics. Stay tuned for our interview with Gwenno around album’s release.
