‘Tresor’ (Treasure) is Gwenno Saunders’ third full-length solo album, and the second almost entirely in Cornish(Kernewek). Written in St. Ives, Cornwall, just prior to the Covid lockdowns of 2020, and completed in Cardiff during the pandemic along with her producer and musical collaborator, Rhys Edwards, ‘Tresor’ reveals an introspective focus on home and self, a prescient work echoing the isolation and retreat that has been a central, global shared experience over the past two years.
‘Tresor’ diverges from the stark themes of technological alienation in ‘Y Dydd Olaf’ (The Final Day) and the meditations on the idea of the homeland on the slyly infectious ‘Le Kov’ (The Place of Memory). Accessible and international in outlook, peppered with moments of offbeat humour, ‘Le Kov’ presented Cornish to the world.
On ‘Tresor’, Gwenno shifts focus from the external to the internal, and onto the journey of rediscovering oneself after the life-changing experience of becoming a mother. It is an exploration of desire, of reclaiming one’s body after childbirth, of working out how to exist as yourself as well as caring first and foremost for somebody else. Inspired by powerful woman writers and artists such as Ithell Colquhoun, the Cornish language poet Phoebe Proctor, Maya Deren and Monica Sjöö, ‘Tresor’ is an intimate view of the feminine interior experience, of domesticity and desire, a rare glimmer of life lived in and expressed through Cornish.
Available to independent retailers on heavyweight 180g vinyl in 200gsm board inner sleeve with matt UV varnish in 300gsm board gatefold sleeve with matt lamination, 12-panel folded insert on matt art paper and digital download code, presented in a PVC sleeve.