In May this year, Gareth Bonello, aka The Gentle Good, released “Elan” (Order via Bubblewrap Collective | Bandcamp). As recently announced, the album has been shortlisted for this year’s Welsh Music Prize. The winner will be announced on Monday, 6th October at a ceremony hosted by Radio 1’s Sian Eleri at the Wales Millennium Centre.
The album was created during a year-long stay in an off-grid cottage in the Cambrian Mountains. The album was one of our Featured Albums of the Month, and in his album review, Glenn Kimpton called it Gareth’s most ambitious album so far, and a veritable triumph.
The album offered a psychedelic portrait of Cwm Elan (Elan Valley), in Powys, Wales, and, featuring songs in both Welsh and English, explored issues of culture, politics and identity through the history and folklore of the valley, which was flooded in the Victorian era to provide drinking water to the city of Birmingham.
In the summer and autumn of 2024, Gareth returned to the valley to shoot this short film about the making of the album and the landscape and people that inspired it.
The short documentary was made by On Par Productions and shot and edited by Ren Faulkner. The film has moments of warmth and a poetic grace, qualities that can be found in the music of The Gentle Good. While Elan is undeniably a contemporary album, the lens through which Gareth sees Cwm Elan is enriched by an affinity for the land and its people. How he lets the past and present speak through his music is genuinely remarkable.
The documentary is perfectly timed, as Gareth heads out on the road soon for an Autumn Tour, including dates with Gruff Rhys. See the tour poster below or visit his website here.
Ticket Links: https://thegentlegood.com/gigs/
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Gareth’s in-depth “Track-by-Track” for ‘Elan’, out now on Bubblewrap Collective: