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Involving Music’s volunteer community created this review and photography. Their contributions help capture the sound and atmosphere of singles, albums and live shows across the South West of England, giving space to genuine fan voices and local perspectives. These pieces sit alongside our Spotlight features, helping shine a light on the artists shaping the region.

Exeter Phoenix in Devon was a fantastic setting for Gwenno’s 29th October 2025 performance, being in the neighbouring county of Cornwall, where she’s loved for promoting the Cornish language. The venue is also a centre of culture, art and innovation, creating a space for alternative artists like Gwenno to share their work. The venue boasted a great set of stairs to walk up before entering, making you feel as if you were walking into the Royal Albert Hall for an opera. Past the glass doors opened by the doorman, you fall into the familiar, warm embrace of the bar – probably just like the Royal Albert Hall.

The auditorium gig space, a high-ceilinged, sizeable room with a 450-standing capacity, offers a very intimate setting. The backdrop for the performance displayed the title of Gwenno’s new album “Utopia”, accompanied by a Celtic knot design; a piece of continuous line art with Pagan heritage. Beside the Celtic knot were the classic card suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades from the 15th century.

This combination of ancient symbols, still used today, referenced Gwenno’s modern use of the traditional Cornish and Welsh languages in her experimental pop music.

Maybe I’d arrived at the gig a little too early.

Words: Fergus Bailey

Photography: Ruby Bensberg

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QUINQUIS

QUINQUIS, Gwenno’s support act for the tour, entered a moody stage and took her place behind a scientific number of wires, synths, boxes, sequencers and processors. After adjusting the microphone and offering a quick greeting, she entered a trance-like state. What followed was a deep, dark collection of techno and electronic landscapes combined with personal melodies rooted in her Celtic Breton ancestry.

QUINQUIS’s set showcased her groundbreaking new album Eor, as well as tracks from her debut album SEIM and EP aer. She sang primarily in the Celtic language of Breton, a language used by her ancestors on the island of Ushant in Brittany, France and blended this tradition with haunting samples, angelic techno melodies and pounding bass. Her music made the floor vibrate, and even the most steadfast audience members move and sway to the rhythms.

The first few tracks were introduced as stories of sailors, a traditional songwriting theme from Ushant and their eagerly waiting wives (and, conversely, their not-so-waiting ones). QUINQUIS immortalised these tales through ambient electronic sounds and experimental melodies, paired with her passionate vocals. Throwing her head back and whipping her hair across her face as she sang, she embodied the music.

A standout moment came with the new track Distro from Eor, which translates to “come back”. This song is all about mermaids returning to the mainland. Its repeating electronic sequence felt like floating on the sea or swaying with the waves.

Other highlights included Dec’h and Morweg, both featuring powerful bass and ethereal vocals. Before her final song, QUINQUIS commented that she was “the dark to Gwenno’s light” and proved it with Setu from SEIM, a song about death in Breton culture.

As white and red lights flashed, her set reached a crescendo. I felt the bass in my bones and my teeth rattling in my skull (in a good way), exactly as intended, the Yin to Gwenno’s Yang. A truly excellent set, offering a fascinating insight into her ancestry and her innovative approach to electronica.

Gwenno

During the break, many audience members I spoke to, and a few I overheard, had seen Gwenno before and followed her extensive career. There was a sense of respectful excitement in the crowd, like waiting for a piece of theatre.

Gwenno entered the stage alongside a full band: drums (Llyr Pari), bass (Tad Davies), and guitar/synth (Rhys Edwards), who also helped produce the new album. She took her place at a white piano, stage left, beside a candelabra burning three long candles under a spotlight. The audience waited with bated breath; a pin could have dropped. With a quick greeting, she launched straight into some Gwenno classics, including the dreamy pop track Anima from the 2022 album Tresor and Tir Ha Mor from the 2018 album Le Kov.

Both songs sounded excellent with the live band, giving depth and groove to her psychedelic sound. The crowd swayed to the catchy vocal melodies, entranced by Gwenno’s angelic piano performance under the spotlight. There was a nostalgic moment as she reminisced about first performing these tracks ten years ago in Cardiff, before moving into Calon Peiriant from her 2015 Welsh debut, inspired by American whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Next came songs from the new album Utopia, sung in English, a shift from her previous Cornish and Welsh works. The trancey new single War, with pounding drums and haunting, repetitive vocals inspired by radical Welsh artist and poet Edrica Huws, was followed by the grooves of 73, full of excellent guitar and bass-driven solos and riffs.

She brought out the synthesiser for Tresor (2022), its ethereal vocals floating over the crowd, before getting everyone to meow along to her new single Y Gath (2025), an eerie synth masterpiece and my personal favourite of the night.

Gwenno gave a quick shoutout to a “lonely Jarvis Cocker Pre-Pulp reunion” for inspiring Dancing on Volcanoes and its infectious guitar riffs, before taking the audience into a dreamlike state with the title track Utopia. The crowd was fully immersed, transported into her synth dream world where everything felt okay.

We even learned a little Cornish for Eus Keus? (2018), as the band turned it into a punky chant about the location and importance of cheese.

Gwenno closed with St Ives New School (2025), ending on a long instrumental section driven by her signature psychedelic groove, getting the emotional crowd dancing again in the final moments of the show.

Gwenno and the band exited to thunderous applause, an excellent showcase for her new music giving weight to an important biographical album of Gwenno’s life. Good times.

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Guitar/synth: Rhys Edwards

– Fergus Bailey

Fergus is a lover of all things music and the South West, having lived, listened to, and played here for over six years. As a teenager, being punched in the toilets at a Take That tribute, he developed a varied and eclectic taste for music spanning multiple genres, from country and folk to punk and hip-hop. He also plays and creates music on drums, guitar and banjo. Independent venues and local artists are significant to him as they continue to be threatened by big media companies.

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