''Le Kov'' ("a place of memory" in Cornish) is the second studio album by Welsh singer-songwriter

Gwenno Gwenno Mererid Saunders (born 23 May 1981) is a Welsh musician, known by the stage name Gwenno. She has released three critically-acclaimed albums as a solo artist: Welsh Music Prize winner'' Y Dydd Olaf'' (2014); ''Le Kov'' (2018), her first a ...

. It was released on 2 March 2018 on

Heavenly Recordings Heavenly Recordings is a London-based independent record label founded by Jeff Barrett in 1990. Heavenly released the first albums from Saint Etienne (band), Saint Etienne, Beth Orton and Doves (band), Doves, and early singles by Manic Street P ...

. The first single from the album is "Tir Ha Mor (Land and Sea)".

claim Gwenno felt a duty to make her second album entirely in Cornish as a record of the living language. The songs on ''Le Kov'' are written and composed by Gwenno Saunders with help from Rhys Edwards, and features guest vocalist

Gruff Rhys Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys (; born 18 July 1970) is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed ...

on the song "Daromres Y'n Howl". The album also features drum engineering by Gorwel Owen, who has produced albums by both Rhys and his band

Super Furry Animals Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian Ciaran ...

Background

Gwenno Saunders grew up in a Cornish speaking family, with her father

Tim Saunders Tim Saunders is a Cornish poet and journalist primarily writing in the Cornish language who also writes in the Welsh, Irish, and Breton languages. He is resident in Cardiff but is of Cornish descent. He is a literary historian and editor of 'T ...

writing Cornish poetry. Regarding her upbringing, she noted: "It was like living in a sort of cult of four people, in

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. I had no idea about popular culture. Years later, I said to my mum, 'Why didn’t you tell me about

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

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?’” 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 Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

, why don’t you learn

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

? It’s like everything you do has to have monetary value. I think you have to find the non-monetary value in things.” The album was later credited by the

Cornish Language Board Kesva an Taves Kernewek ( Cornish for ''Cornish Language Board'') is an organisation that promotes the Cornish language. It was founded in 1967 by Gorseth Kernow and the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. It is represented on the official lan ...

with encouraging a record number of students to take exams in the Cornish language during 2018.

Critical reception

''Le Kov'' was met with "universal acclaim" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 81 based on 13 reviews. Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 80 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 17 reviews. Will Hodgkinson of The Times gave the album three out of five stars. Helia Phoenix of Caught by the River praised the album, and linked ''Le Kov'' with the world's

displaced people Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

, who are forced to abandon their language and culture. Phoenix described the album's music as "psychedelic" and compared Gwenno to

Boards of Canada Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s.Hoffmann, Heiko.Pitchfork: Interviews: Boards of Canada (Septemb ...

and

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin, Order of British Empire, OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an English-French singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She als ...

. Michael Hann of The Guardian was also positive, giving ''Le Kov'' four out of five stars. 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 Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

in their creation of a psychedelia that looks backwards and forwards simultaneously." The album was nominated in the 2018,

AIM Independent Music Awards The AIM Independent Music Awards, hosted by the Association of Independent Music (commonly abbreviated to AIM), began in 2011. It is established through a collection of independent record labels and providing service and support to independent and s ...

for 'Best Sophomore Release'. The album was also shortlisted for the

Welsh Music Prize The Welsh Music Prize is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from Wales, as voted for by members of the music industry. It was founded by music promoter John Rostron and radio presenter Huw Stephens in 2011. It was originally schedul ...

. This is the annual music prize awarded for the best album from Wales.

Accolades

Track listing

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kov 2018 albums Cornish language Heavenly Recordings albums Cornish culture Cornish music Gwenno albums