When the Welsh singer-songwriter Gwenno tours England, no one understands a word of her lyrics. “But they’re so open to my point of view,” she says, smiling. Growing up speaking two languages fluently – Cornish and Welsh – has endowed her with a split musical identity. “[If] I sing in Welsh, because of my lived experience with it, I feel I’m getting on the soapbox, because protest and campaigning has informed my Welsh language experience,” she explains. “Whereas Cornish is this really intimate home language that’s to do with my imagination. They are two very different personalities.”
Gwenno’s latest album, Tresor, is the first ever Cornish-language record to be shortlisted for the Mercury Prize – today she’ll find out if she’s won. Certainly, she would deserve it. Tresor is a resplendent body of work, a tapestry woven from fine threads of history, folklore, and Gwenno’s own life. Into this she has sewn together patches of psych-rock, indie, chamber pop and Breton folk.
