Psycheldic pop singer Gwenno is bringing her Mercury Prize nominated music to Donegal next week.
Gwenno, whose full name is Gwenno Mererid Saunders, is a critically acclaimed Welsh-Cornish musician, producer, and former member of indie-pop group The Pipettes.
As a younger artist, she spent two years in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance.
It is a rare chance to experience one of the most original artists live as part of her of current Irish tour.
She will perform at the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny on Tuesday, July 14.
Blending dreamlike synth-pop, subtle electro, and ethereal indie melodies, she is widely recognized for her solo albums sung in Welsh, Cornish, and English
Her psychedelic pop and folklore is set to thrill fans when she sings in Welsh and Cornish.
Critics claim that Gwenno explores identity through shimmering synths and ethereal melodies.
Gwenno is set for Donegal.
Gwenno has been described a “singular talent” and her music has been described as a “masterpiece of understated, atmospheric psych-pop”.
One music reviewer said: “Gwenno is one of the most impressive and singular artists at work today. Intoxicatingly beautiful, she makes the ancient feel futuristic and the alien feel like home.”
Gwenno grew up in a trilingual household, with her father speaking Cornish and her mother speaking Welsh.
She explained that singing in minority languages provides massive creative freedom because it removed mainstream industry expectations.
She made history by earning a Mercury Prize nomination for Tresor, an album largely sung in Cornish.
Her new album Utopia has marked a return to writing music predominantly in English.
She said: “Utopia is a final farewell to the 20th Century, an homage to the urban spaces that I’ve danced and loved in that no longer exist and an acknowledgement of how each time you use a language to communicate with another in a moment, that it stays with you, and is impossible to translate.”
She added: “I managed to avoid getting a proper job of any kind until I joined Lord of the Dance when I turned 16.
“It was a bit of an anomaly really. Once I left to pursue music I had to go and do all of the menial jobs that I’d avoided as a teen,” she told the undertheradarmag.com website.
Gwenno also has scheduled dates in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, and Limerick.