Gwenno – Utopia

There’s a couple of things that set Gwenno Saunders’ fourth solo album Utopia apart from her previous projects. For one, it’s primarily in English. Her 2014 debut LP Y Dydd Olaf was sung in Welsh and subsequent projects, 2018’s Le Kov and 2022’s Tresor, in Cornish. With lyrics recalling her adolescence spent in London, Las Vegas, Brighton and Cardiff, Utopia is an altogether more urban album, recounting experiences of nightclubs and bus rides and thrumming streets.

Another first for the Welsh-Cornish musician is that the record was largely composed on the piano, while each of her previous works took shape electronically. With rich strings, choppy, staccato basslines, and spindly guitar, there’s an earthiness to Utopia that contrasts with the gleaming mysticism of the Mercury-shortlisted Tresor.

London 1757 is a perfect opener, bristling with energy and motion. Light percussion and plucked guitar create a restless, itchy groove, while cool, pearly keyboard and haunting vocals lend an air of mystery. Lead single Dancing on Volcanoes follows, a lively burst of catchy guitar pop. Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline join Gwenno for the spiky, feline Y Gath, sliced between the celestial ballad Utopia and the windswept desolation of War. Finally, on airy closer Hireth, the album seems to take off out of the city streets and into an otherworldly reverie, delicately strung together with harp and flute.

Listen to: London 1757, Utopia, Y Gath