Ah, November. The time of year when everything is dying and smells of empty. A bleak view perhaps, but an accurate description nonetheless. The new single from Gareth Bonello aka The Gentle Good matches our mindset but suggests we look on the bright side; good things are coming, we just have to wait for and look out for them.
This gorgeous song is one of reassurance, with psychedelic keys, warm comforting strings and my god, is that a theremin in there, or cello wizardry?
‘Tachwedd’ – pronounced TA a in TAnk, CH as in the German iCH, WE as in WEll and DD as TH in The – was recorded in an off-grid cottage during a year-long residency in the Cambrian Mountains and taken from new album Elan a tribute to the Cwm Elan (Elan Valley) in Powys, Wales. Featuring songs in both Welsh and English, Elan explores the landscape, history and politics of this remote valley, which was flooded to provide water for Birmingham at the end of the Victorian era.
‘The album is a psychedelic portrait of Cwm Elan and is quite varied in sound. ‘Tachwedd’ the Welsh name for November originally meant ‘slaughter’, as this is the time of year when livestock would be killed to provide meat for the winter. The songs is a simple celebration of autumn coupled with a reminder to steel ourselves for the coming dark,’ says Gareth.
‘We filmed the video with Toby and Ren from On Par productions. Ren and I spent a very wet day wandering about in the October rain, trying to keep the camera from getting wet, a battle we ultimately lost. The weather was glorious the day, but I quite like the bedraggled look, which is an accurate depiction of my appearance wandering about the valley during the residency.’
‘I spent the time getting to know the landscape, learning about the history of the area and writing in a cottage above Penygarreg Dam,’ he explains. ‘There’s songs about the landscape and the Welsh language, local legends and contemporary issues. Some of the songs are more political, addressing the loss of a community when the valley was drowned at the end of the 19th century.
Every now and then I’d come down from the mountain to jam and record with Frank Naughton and Andy Fung at Ty Drwg studios in Grangetown, Cardiff.’
Elan is due for release in May 2025 via Bubblewrap Collective.
