Tresor
Subtitle
by Gwenno
(Heavenly Recordings, LP, DL)
gwenno.info
★★★★✩
In the late-1980s, when Reykjavik’s most famous band, The Sugarcubes, was at its height, someone dim in the audience bellowed at its singer: ‘Speak English!’ Björk, lead singer, shot back: ‘Learn Icelandic!’ This anecdote comes to mind when faced with Gwenno’s third album, a shining, gossamer-woven collection of songs (nearly all) sung in Kernewek (or Cornish).
Having released her previous albums in her native Welsh, and Cornish, the singer-songwriter Gwenno Saunders is no stranger to the ‘Speak English!’ brigade. It is not only admirable but essential to the survival of endangered languages that she chooses not to. Listening to Tresor (‘Treasure’) may not inspire all people to learn Cornish, but what it will do is put its sounds, its words, in the memories of its listeners. This is a gentle, if potent, form of sonic activism.
Of course, English translations for the lyrics are offered, but it’s rewarding to immerse oneself in the Cornish. ‘An Stevel Nowydh’ (‘The New Room’) offers an introspective gaze, and an alertness to shifting lights and breezes. Gwenno’s voice has a suppleness that recalls English folkies such as June Tabor or Maddy Prior, while the airy orchestration favours keyboards, guitars and light-touch electronics.
The one time she returns to Welsh is on ‘N.Y.C.A.W.’ (‘Nid yw Cymru ar Werth’ or ‘Wales is not for sale’). Her vocals shift from a tense spoken section to a gloriously sweeping refrain of ‘Nid yw Cymru ar werth!’ while her partner collaborator Rhys Edwards does some great Johnny Marr-style guitar licks. A song for English second-homers in Wales – or maybe not.
Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amore
by Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker
(Unseen Worlds CD, DL)
unseenworlds.bandcamp.com
★★★★★
The Italian musicians Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker are best known within the world of contemporary classical music, where their work (especially with composers such as Éliane Radigue and Pascale Criton) has been rightly celebrated. Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amore (Songs of war, work and love) finds them back in their home territory of Emilia-Romagna to create a luminous project that draws from specifically regional song and social history and, in so doing, creates a dynamic and moving unity between genres of music.
Tarozzi (violin) and Walker (cello) have collaborated on various projects and ensembles for some 20 years, but this is the first time that they have explored, musically speaking, their sonic heritage in depth. The material here covers anti-fascist and workers’ songs, and, thrillingly, what the album bills as ‘the first female proletarian struggle song’, ‘La Lege’ (‘The Union’). Dating from the late 19th century, ‘La Lege’ is associated with rice workers in the Po Valley. Tarozzi takes vocals from the all-women local choir, the Coro delle Mondine di Bentivoglio, and multitracks the song so it grows into a canon before being overlaid by a long cello line. The arrangement is breath-taking in its strength and elegance.
With both original music from the duo and settings of older songs, this album conjures up the landscape of their region. Guest slots from vocalist Ola Obasi Nnanna and mbira player Andrea Rovacchi on on the anti-fascist ‘Il bersagliere ha cento penne’ work gloriously. Canti di guerra is an album about making links between musics, histories and genres, and is nothing short of wonderful.
