Biography
Gwenno Saunders shapes atmospheric soundscapes that fuse understated electronic pop with luminous indie melodies, her commanding voice acting as the defining element. Having once performed with the Pipettes, a collective devoted to girl-group aesthetics, she projects a more contemplative identity through her independent releases, notably by restoring the Cornish language she continues to speak fluently on 2018’s Le Kov and by examining the emotional terrain of motherhood on 2022’s Tresor.
Cardiff-born to a poet father and a mother who sang in a socialist vocal choir, Saunders entered performance early, beginning dance lessons at five and eventually appearing in Las Vegas as part of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance before turning her attention to music. Recording electro-pop in Welsh, she issued the EPs Môr Hud in 2002 and Vodya in 2004, then joined the Pipettes in 2005. During her time with the group she still managed to advance her own projects, issuing the mini-album U & I in 2007.
Lineup shifts reduced the Pipettes to Gwenno and her sister Ani for their second album, 2010’s Earth vs. the Pipettes; the band dissolved the following year. In 2012 Gwenno played keyboards for Australian dance outfit Pnau while they supported Elton John on the tour promoting their collaborative album Good Morning to the Night. That same year she resumed her Welsh work with the solo EP Ymbelydredd, issued under the name Gwenno, and soon resumed recording.
After a series of EPs on the Welsh label Peski that broadened her lo-fi electro-pop into richer arrangements, she delivered her debut solo album Y Dydd Olaf in 2014. Co-produced by Peski co-founder Rhys Edwards, sung entirely in Welsh and Cornish, and inspired by Owain Owain’s 1976 science-fiction novel of the same title, the record sold out its initial pressing and led to a deal with Heavenly Records, which reissued it in July 2015. Later that year she celebrated the arrival of her first child and the album’s receipt of the Welsh Music Prize.
Throughout 2016 she performed widely, including at SXSW in Austin, before commencing work on a new album written entirely in Cornish as a tribute to the endangered language of which she is among the few remaining fluent speakers. Reuniting with Edwards, she incorporated contributions from Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals and Welsh producer Gorwel Owen; the resulting Le Kov, meaning “The Place of Memory,” appeared on Heavenly in early 2018. The project extended her role as an advocate for Cornish culture, bringing the language to print and television, including an appearance on Later with Jools Holland. Partly through these efforts, the number of candidates sitting Cornish language examinations in the UK rose 15 percent to 77.
Once promotional activity subsided, she and Edwards returned to the studio to shape an album that interwove her Welsh and Cornish heritage with personal reflections on raising a young son and on motherhood’s wider societal significance. Tresor employs a restrained palette of acoustic and electronic instruments more delicately balanced than on earlier work; its songs, delivered in English, Welsh, and Cornish, were released by Heavenly in July 2022.
Cardiff-born to a poet father and a mother who sang in a socialist vocal choir, Saunders entered performance early, beginning dance lessons at five and eventually appearing in Las Vegas as part of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance before turning her attention to music. Recording electro-pop in Welsh, she issued the EPs Môr Hud in 2002 and Vodya in 2004, then joined the Pipettes in 2005. During her time with the group she still managed to advance her own projects, issuing the mini-album U & I in 2007.
Lineup shifts reduced the Pipettes to Gwenno and her sister Ani for their second album, 2010’s Earth vs. the Pipettes; the band dissolved the following year. In 2012 Gwenno played keyboards for Australian dance outfit Pnau while they supported Elton John on the tour promoting their collaborative album Good Morning to the Night. That same year she resumed her Welsh work with the solo EP Ymbelydredd, issued under the name Gwenno, and soon resumed recording.
After a series of EPs on the Welsh label Peski that broadened her lo-fi electro-pop into richer arrangements, she delivered her debut solo album Y Dydd Olaf in 2014. Co-produced by Peski co-founder Rhys Edwards, sung entirely in Welsh and Cornish, and inspired by Owain Owain’s 1976 science-fiction novel of the same title, the record sold out its initial pressing and led to a deal with Heavenly Records, which reissued it in July 2015. Later that year she celebrated the arrival of her first child and the album’s receipt of the Welsh Music Prize.
Throughout 2016 she performed widely, including at SXSW in Austin, before commencing work on a new album written entirely in Cornish as a tribute to the endangered language of which she is among the few remaining fluent speakers. Reuniting with Edwards, she incorporated contributions from Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals and Welsh producer Gorwel Owen; the resulting Le Kov, meaning “The Place of Memory,” appeared on Heavenly in early 2018. The project extended her role as an advocate for Cornish culture, bringing the language to print and television, including an appearance on Later with Jools Holland. Partly through these efforts, the number of candidates sitting Cornish language examinations in the UK rose 15 percent to 77.
Once promotional activity subsided, she and Edwards returned to the studio to shape an album that interwove her Welsh and Cornish heritage with personal reflections on raising a young son and on motherhood’s wider societal significance. Tresor employs a restrained palette of acoustic and electronic instruments more delicately balanced than on earlier work; its songs, delivered in English, Welsh, and Cornish, were released by Heavenly in July 2022.
Albums
Singles
