Pre-order the new Gwenno album
Gwenno today announces her new album Utopia due out on 11th July via Heavenly Recordings and available to pre-order as a physical and digital release. The album is the follow-up to her hugely acclaimed third album Tresor which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2022.
43 years into her life, Gwenno Saunders has been many people. The disaffected Cardiff schoolgirl; the teenage Las Vegas dancer; the singer in indie pop group The Pipettes. There was a turn in a Bollywood film, a nightclub tour, a stint cleaning floors in an East London pub. Long before she would become an acclaimed solo songwriter in both Welsh and Cornish, a winner of the Welsh Music Prize, a nominee for the Mercury, a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh, there were the days of Nevada, London, Brighton; of Irish dancing, techno clubs, messiness and chaos.
Utopia, Saunders’ fourth solo album, is an extraordinary exploration of all of these selves. If the singer regards her first three solo records — 2014’s Y Dydd Olaf, 2018’s Le Kov and 2022’s Tresor as “childhood records”, rooted in her upbringing, her parents, her formative identity, then Utopia captures a time of self-determination and experimentation. These are songs of discovery, of the years between being someone’s daughter and becoming someone’s wife and someone’s mother. They range from floor-fillers to piano ballads, via contributions from Cate Le Bon and H. Hawkline, and encompass William Blake, a favourite Edrica Huws poem, and the Number 73 bus. It is her finest work to date.
It is an album that spans 25 years. “All of adulthood,” she points out. “You get to this point and you go ‘God, that quarter of a century went fast.’ But I want to acknowledge it, and respect it and say, for better or worse, all of that happened.”
To accompany the album announcement Gwenno has shared lead single “Dancing On Volcanoes” together with a stylish B&W video shot in Las Vegas. Over a backing track that swirls, drives and punches like a motorik-fuelled version of The Smiths, Gwenno looks back on dancefloors that no longer exist, to the act of dancing as catharsis and the magic of losing oneself until 5am in a strange and beautiful new environment. It’s the perfect return of one of the country's most creative and driven musicians.
Commenting on the track Gwenno says: “Jarvis Cocker dancing alone on stage, surrounded by dry ice, perfectly conveying the loss of our congregational dancing and drinking in small venues with a slight swing of the hip and flick of a hand... dancing 'til 5am at Le Mandela restaurant in Grangetown, Cardiff... the Pet Shop Boys' perfectly aimed observations on modern life... the spirit of Johnny Marr on guitar, his echoes of the Celtic sea passed down through the generations... the need to dance as a cathartic act... it's all here - Dancing on Volcanoes!"
Heavenly & Friends are proud to present an exclusive, intimate London show by one of the label’s most consistently revolutionary artists.
Gwenno will play a daytime show at The Social, 5 Little Portland Street on April 26th. At this extra-special gig, Gwenno will play a solo piano set that previews material from her truly incredible forthcoming fourth album Utopia - an album of discovery that documents the years between being “someone’s daughter, someone’s wife and someone’s mother”. Those songs will be joined on the day by a few handpicked classics from her previous releases Y Dydd Olaf, Le Kov and Tresor.
Gwenno’s Social show coincides with the launch of an exhibition in The Social’s upstairs bar. Utopia on Film: A Visual Soundscape showcases a collection of images shot on film by Welsh artist Clare-Marie Bailey, who created imagery for Gwenno’s third album Tresor. Each picture captures a moment in the diverse landscapes that inspired the album—from the vibrant energy of Las Vegas to the urban backdrops of London. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the soul of the album in ways that only film can convey. Each photograph tells a story as Utopia unfolds frame by frame. Gwenno and Clare-Marie Bailey will be on stage for a Q&A on the day of the gig.
Support on the day comes from Iko Chérie and TV For Cats. Tickets will sell very fast - please be quick if you want to go and enter the code “GWENNO-SOCIAL-UTOPIA” at the checkout.