In anticipation for the release of her second album, Le Kov on 2 March 2018, Welsh-Cornish musician Gwenno has shared a video for the first single ‘Tir Ha Mor’ (Land and Sea), which you can watch above.
Talking about the video, Gwenno said:
“Cornish abstract landscape artist, Peter Lanyon, Marghek an Gwyns (Rider of the Wind, his Cornish Gorsedd bardic name) glided over the land to get a better feel of Cornwall, and Tir Ha Mor (Land and Sea) is inspired by his methods and muse. I filmed what was in front of me, which is nowhere near the same level of commitment, but it is my interpretation of what I saw and felt and that, I hope, is worth something.”
The track is a tribute to Lanyon, who died when he crashed his glider plane in 1964.
Gwenno is one of very few fluent speakers of the Cornish language and the album, which will be released by Heavenly Records, is written entirely in the language.
Speaking about the process of dealing with her anxiety about her right to make a Cornish language pop album, Gwenno said:
“This album is a combination of accepting the culture which your parents have valued enough to want to pass on to you, regardless of how small, and utilising it in a positive way to try and make sense of the world around you. It’s also about having to accept and respect the nuances that make us all different and discovering that all of our stories share the same truth.”
The album explores ideas surrounding individual and collective subconscious, the myths and drolls of Cornwall, and the survival of the Cornish language, which has been around for at least 15 centuries.
Gwenno has also announced a number of tour dates to promote the album:
January
20 – Holyhead, Ucheldre Centre
March
08 – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
09 – Manchester, Gullivers
10 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
16 – Brighton, Rialto Theatre
17 – Ramsgate, Music Hall
22 – Bristol, Louisiana
23 – Oxford, Bullingdon Arms
25 – Aberystwyth, Ceredigion Museum
April
12 – London, Hoxton Hall
