‘The Welsh language has been aggressively oppressed’: Tristwch y Fenywod, the gothic trio communing with a mystical Wales

Inspired by the ‘enchanted, sapphic feeling’ of the coast and with bat sounds for drums, this Wales-obsessed band sound like no one else. They explain how queerness, neurodivergence and anti-colonialism guide what they do

‘It’s often dealing with quite elemental things,” says the vocalist Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth of Tristwch y Fenywod’s music. “The sense of being in an ancient landscape; or the enchanted, sapphic feeling of being by the ocean. Our music addresses things that are simple and foundational, but very powerful.”

Released last August – and now being performed live by the band across the summer festival circuit – the trio’s self-titled debut album is a lush, cathartic mix of gothic instrumentation and eldritch melody, like a lost Cocteau Twins masterpiece recorded in a cave in Eryri, stirring intense feelings even in those who can’t understand its Welsh lyrics. There’s a political dimension too. “The oppression of the Welsh language over the past 200 years was so aggressive,” says the drummer Leila Lygad, citing how Welsh children were forced to speak English in 19th- and 20th-century schools. “It feels important to champion languages that have been oppressed by colonial systems.”