This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today’s video is ‘Chwyldro’ by Gwenno.
It’s the fourth week of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time series, and this week we’ve seen honourable mentions for Catatonia’s Way Beyond Blue, Baby Queens’ self-titled debut album and Drinks’ Hermits on Holiday. To continue with our running theme, we’re taking a look back at the video for ‘Chwyldro’ from Gwenno as our video of the week.
As part of this week’s countdown, Jack Boyce wrote of Gwenno’s album:
‘Whilst Gwenno had been working within music for a while before her actual debut solo full-length arrived in 2014, Y Dydd Olaf seemed to come out of nowhere. Releasing a few solo works in the early 2000s before a spell in The Pipettes, Y Dydd Olaf may be one of the greatest reintroductory/debut records of the 2010s, and possibly even further out. Inspired by Owain Owain’s 1976 novel of the same name – a book indebted to the future dystopia outlined in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World – Gwenno soars with vocals crying out for revolution & igniting a spark of light to rally against the darkness. The production fits the bill too; an immaculately produced foundation with thanks to Peski Records leader Rhys Edwards (Jakokoyak), spurring mechanical interjects into spacey krautrock-indebted synth-pop that inspires both hope for the future & fear of the current climate. An important record with a heart that yearns for the preservation of culture with eyes firmly on the future. Which artist could you point to that has had such a significant impact that they would go on to spark a huge uptake in a minority language learnership?’
Watch the video for ‘Chwyldro’ below, and take a look at albums 70-61 of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown here.
Y Dydd Olaf from Gwenno is available now.
