GWEN shares debut solo single ‘Achub Yr Iaith’

There are moments in an artist’s life when beginning again is not just brave, but a radical act of belief. After a decade helping build one of the most influential legacies in modern Welsh music with Adwaith, Gwenllian Anthony returns as GWEN.

Her debut single, ‘Achub Yr Iaith’ (Saving the Language), is out today alongside a video directed by Louis O’Hara and Gwenllian herself, and marks the beginning of a fearless solo era. It’s a first glimpse into a bold, uncompromising artistic identity: darker, more expansive and entirely her own. With the band currently taking a well-earned hiatus after an extraordinary decade, GWEN is not a side project, it is the beginning of an entirely new artistic chapter.

Over the past ten years with Adwaith, Gwenllian has been at the heart of one of the defining creative forces in modern Welsh music. Through three acclaimed albums (Melyn, Bato Mato and SOLAS), countless tours across the UK, Europe, North America and as far as Outer Siberia, they built their reputation the hard way, breaking down doors, creating opportunities where few existed and refusing to accept limitations.

That same determination extended beyond the music. By founding FEMME, the first all-female gig series within the Welsh-language music community, they helped create vital space for women and alternative artists, challenging the attitudes that too often diminish female creativity and who gets to be heard.

Written while touring across Europe during the summer of 2025 and completed in West Wales alongside Tim Lewis (Coil, Spiritualized) and long-time collaborator and producer Steffan Pringle, ‘Achub Yr Iaith’ marks the first time Gwenllian has written and realised a body of work entirely alone.

Trusting her instincts completely, GWEN has forged a sound that bridges the fearless experimentation of Kim Gordon and Björk, the rhythmic freedom of Lizzy Mercier Descloux and CAN, and the immersive industrial weight of Nine Inch Nails and Massive Attack. Minimal electronics meet hypnotic, driving rhythms and emotionally exposed songwriting. At its centre is Cymraeg, not as something to be explained, but as the music’s natural creative language.

‘Achub Yr Iaith’ is not simply about preserving Welsh. It is about defending creativity itself. Throughout her career, Gwenllian has consistently confronted the misogyny that seeks to belittle women’s creativity, ambition and achievements. Rather than dwell in that negativity, ‘Achub Yr Iaith’ transforms it into something hopeful. It is a declaration of everything she has always stood for: that creativity belongs to everyone, that language is a living force and that imagination is one of humanity’s greatest acts of resistance.

As Gwenllian explains, “‘Achub Yr Iaith’ came from years of hearing people reduce Adwaith’s success to everything except our hard work. There were even conspiracy theories that we were being funded by the Welsh government to spread the language, as if that explained our achievements. It completely disregarded the years we spent writing, touring, and pushing ourselves creatively, reducing our success to the idea that we’d been handed it simply because we sang in Welsh. This song is about reclaiming that narrative. It’s a reminder that talent, determination, and belief will always matter more than the assumptions others make about you.”

‘Achub Yr Iaith’ is a powerful first statement from an artist embracing complete creative freedom. GWEN arrives with a vision that reaches far beyond language alone, towards the shared imagination that connects us all.

Catch GWEN perform her debut solo show at this year’s Green Man festival, Sunday August 23rd on the Walled Garden Stage.