Gwenno – Tresor

Gwenno's excellent third album Tresor is a thrilling psych-pop journey well worth the four-year wait

Album Review by Ryan Drever | 30 Jun 2022
  • Gwenno - Tresor
Album title: Tresor
Artist: Gwenno
Label: Heavenly Recordings
Release date: 1 Jul

Gwenno's excellent third album Tresor (Cornish for 'Treasure') takes us on a psych-pop journey of self, purpose, body and desire; examined and explored from the perspective of a new mother. Sung almost entirely in Cornish, aka Kernewek, with the exception of N.Y.C.A.W. – which stands for Nid yw Cymru ar Werth, meaning Wales is not for Sale – Tresor expands on the melodic themes of its predecessor, 2018's Le Kov, to bring us an entrancing body of new work which sounds both familiar and otherworldly.

Opening track – and the album's first single – An Stevel Nowydh is an irresistible nugget of glassy vintage pop, evoking the misty moors of classic 60s/70s horror cinema, with its crisp, mid-tempo groove puffing and pulsing along as Gwenno Saunders’ lush vocal melodies bob and dive like seabirds.

It sets the bar for an abundance of similarly fantastic early moments via Anima, the eponymous Tresor and the aforementioned N.Y.C.A.W. (easily the most accessible and up-tempo entry here) before Men an Toll’s brief instrumental interlude signals a slight shift in mood, leading us into the more immersive electronic textures of Keltek and Tonnow. Culminating in the lilting, Porth la, which gently lullabies us safely back to shore, this is a thrilling and beautiful return well worth the four-year wait.

Listen to: An Stevel Nowydh, Tonnow, N.Y.C.A.W.

http://gwenno.info