Le Kov ("a place of memory" in Cornish[1]) is the second studio album by Welsh-Cornish singer-songwriter Gwenno. It was released on 2 March 2018[2][3] on Heavenly Recordings. The first single from the album is "Tir Ha Mor (Land and Sea)". Heavenly Recordings claim Gwenno felt a duty to make her second album entirely in Cornish as a record of the living language.[4]
The songs on Le Kov are written and composed by Gwenno Saunders with help from Rhys Edwards, and features guest vocalist Gruff Rhys on the song "Daromres Y'n Howl".[3] The album also features drum engineering by Gorwel Owen, who has produced albums by both Rhys and his band Super Furry Animals .[1]
Background
Gwenno Saunders grew up in a Cornish speaking family, with her father Tim Saunders writing Cornish poetry. Regarding her upbringing, she noted: "It was like living in a sort of cult of four people, in Riverside in Cardiff. I had no idea about popular culture. Years later, I said to my mum, 'Why didn’t you tell me about David Bowie or people like that?’ And she said that it was all just around, that I was always going to find out about that stuff myself. But it was really annoying for a while, because I’d meet people and have no idea what they were talking about – you know, ‘Who are Pavement?’”[5]
Gwenno was also, in part, inspired to record Le Kov due to a decision by the British government to cut funding towards the Cornish language in 2016: "There’s that argument that I think is really stupid: why do you have to learn Cornish or Welsh, why don’t you learn Mandarin? It’s like everything you do has to have monetary value. I think you have to find the non-monetary value in things.”[5] The album was later credited by the Cornish Language Board with encouraging a record number of students to take exams in the Cornish language during 2018.[6][7]
Le Kov was met with "universal acclaim" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 81 based on 13 reviews.[8] Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release an 80 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 17 reviews.[15]
Will Hodgkinson of The Times gave the album three out of five stars.[16] Helia Phoenix of Caught by the River praised the album, and linked Le Kov with the world's displaced people,[17] who are forced to abandon their language and culture. Phoenix described the album's music as "psychedelic" and compared Gwenno to Boards of Canada and Jane Birkin.[17] Michael Hann of The Guardian was also positive, giving Le Kov four out of five stars.[18] Hann was dismissive towards Gwenno's Cornish language, but praised the music: "It’s the melodies that will keep people coming back: purposeful and direct, but deliciously blurry, reminiscent of Broadcast in their creation of a psychedelia that looks backwards and forwards simultaneously."[18] The album was nominated in the 2018, AIM Independent Music Awards for 'Best Sophomore Release'.[19] The album was also shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize. This is the annual music prize awarded for the best album from Wales.[20]
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