Welsh-Cornish artist Gwenno (aka Gwenno Saunders) has announced the July 11 release of her fourth solo album Utopia (via Heavenly Recordings), with lead single "Dancing on Volcanoes" out today. Her previous album, 2022's Tresor, was among the dozen albums shortlisted for that year's Mercury Prize, which was ultimately won by Little Simz.

Named after a techno club in Las Vegas where she would spend most of her weekends while living in the city for two years as a lead member of Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance Irish dancing stage show, Utopia's ten songs chart the 25 years of Saunders' adulthood so far, from her late teens on the Las Vegas strip and the London years as a member of The Pipettes, through to her creative rebirth as a solo artist upon returning to Wales in 2011.

Whereas her first three solo albums were written in Welsh and Cornish (Kernewek), Utopia is a predominantly English-language record. Says Saunders in a press release:

“I feel as if I’ve written a debut record, because it’s a different language and it’s a different part of my life. It’s about that point where I go out into the world on my own, which people generally write about first, and then get on with their lives. But it’s taken me so long to digest it — I needed 20 years just to make sense of things, and I realised the starting point of my creative life isn’t Wales, it’s actually North America.” 

She also shares some of the inspirations behind "Dancing on Volcanoes":

“Jarvis Cocker dancing alone on stage, surrounded by dry ice, perfectly conveying the loss of our congregational dancing and drinking in small venues with a slight swing of the hip and flick of a hand... dancing 'til 5am at Le Mandela restaurant in Grangetown, Cardiff... the Pet Shop Boys' perfectly aimed observations on modern life... the spirit of Johnny Marr on guitar, his echoes of the Celtic sea passed down through the generations... the need to dance as a cathartic act... it's all here."

Watch the B&W video, shot by Clare Marie Bailey in Las Vegas and edited by Saunders, below:

Utopia is out July 11. Pre-order it here. Full tracklist below:

1. London 1757
2. Dancing On Volcanoes
3. Utopia
4. Y Gath
5. War
6. 73
7. The Devil
8. Ghost Of You
9. St Ives New School
10. Hireth

Gwenno will debut some of her new material at a London show later this month, followed by a run of festivals, an Alanis Morissette support slot in Cardiff, and further headline shows in Q4.

04/26 London, UK @ The Social
05/04 Salford, UK @ Sounds From The Other City
06/19 Cornwall, UK @ The Lost Gardens
07/02 Cardiff, UK @ Blackweir Park *
08/16 Crickhowell, UK @ Green Man Festival
10/31 London, UK @ EartH
11/11 Cardiff, UK @ New Theatre

* with Alanis Morissette

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