Gwenno Saunders On Making Peace With Your Roots

Gwenno Saunders is used to occupying an extremely niche place in the world. She was brought up speaking Welsh and Cornish - two of the oldest and uncommonly spoken languages in the UK.

"My dad (Cornish poet Tim Saunders) did Celtic studies at university, my mum (singer and activist Lyn Mererid) did Welsh, and they were both quite passionate about Welsh and Cornish cultures, and Celtic cultures in general," she explains. As a teenager, Saunders remembers "really loving really tacky R&B, and it was pure rebellion against this sort of earnest, folky-driven culture that my parents were really passionate about."

Saunders became an accomplished Irish dancer - even becoming part of the Riverdance troupe in Las Vegas, and later went on to be a member of manufactured British indie-pop girl group, The Pipettes, "because it was the most English thing that I could find and that was really interesting to me."

"I also needed to confront what my parents had given me, which was very particular."

After The Pipettes dissolved she did a stint as synth player for Pnau, even flying to Australia for one memorable gig alongside Elton John. Moving back to her hometown of Cardiff saw her begin to work on her own material. Back in Wales, and looking for inspiration, she "re-discovered lots of my own culture that I hadn't been been aware of, due to probably my own ignorance and not having access to everything, in particular with music and literature. It was really about trying to do something that I felt challenging and that I was unfamiliar with."

There was a lot to draw on in Welsh culture, "because it's a really interesting language. And I also needed to confront what my parents had given me, which was very particular. I think that you naturally want to rebel against it but actually I almost felt like you confront it and then you can own it as well. It's making peace with who you are and what you've been given."

Approaching the album Y Dydd Olaf with the decision to sing in Welsh, Saunders says, "I wasn't sure how the words were going to fit with the music and things like that." But it wasn't just a creative decision, it was by default a political one. "I think historically, Welsh language music has been political by its nature, you know? And so that really fed into it, because I think with minority cultures they're fighting to survive and so that fed into it quite naturally, then. There was a point for it to be political because actually it was about a voice just wanting to keep on existing, political in itself."

The end result is a visionary exploration of synth-pop soundscapes, blended with Welsh field recordings, and with Saunders' evocative, breathy vocals conveying much depth and meaning despite the language barrier. The album was released on her producer and husband Rhys Edwards' Peski record label in October 2014. Saunders did a UK tour supporting Gruff Rhys, the album won the Welsh Music Prize, and Heavenly Recordings snapped it up, re-releasing it in July 2015, exposing it to a much wider audience. As a live experience, the material, she says is "an open-ended conversation, trying to create some atmosphere, a lot of electronics on tables and things."