rEDOLENT and Gwenno announced as IVW ambassadors for Scotland and Wales

YolanDa Brown OBE DL, the acclaimed saxophonist, broadcaster, philanthropist, author – and now, independent venue owner – the overall Artist Ambassador for IVW25.

Gwenno will perform a special one-off solo show for IVW25 at the award-winning Acapela Studio on 29 January. Originally constructed in 1835, and based in Pentyrch, a village on the western outskirts of Cardiff, the converted chapel serves as both a recording studio and 240-capacity music venue.

“I'm delighted to be this year's IVW Welsh Ambassador, having spent so much of my musical life playing and going to gigs at independent venues across Wales and beyond for the past 25+ years," Gwenno says. "I'm so looking forward to performing at the beautiful Acapela in Pentyrch, a venue that I've heard so much about and have always wanted to play. I'll be playing a stripped-back solo piano set of old and new material with a few surprises here and there, and make sure to get down early for the wonderfully elusive ambient solo traveller Dean Lligwy, as well as Welsh music icon Pat Morgan of the band Datblygu for a special solo set.”

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2025 Scottish Ambassadors, rEDOLENT, made headlines in October after winning the Scottish Album of the Year Award for their debut album, Dinny Greet. The Edinburgh-based five-piece (brothers Danny and Robin Herbert plus Andrew Turnbull, Robbie White and Alice Hancock) topped an incredibly strong shortlist, including the likes of Arab Strap and Barry Can’t Swim, winning plaudits for their left-field electronic pop.

Describing one of his favourite independent venues, Andrew Turnbull from rEDOLENT said: “One of my most memorable gigs was when I was 17 and went to see The Xcerts at Sneaky Pete’s. They had just released their second album, Scatterbrain, which remains one of my favourite albums to this day. Sneaky Pete’s, though a smaller venue, has an incredible vibe, and I felt so lucky to get a ticket - it felt like a smaller setting for a band as big as The Xcerts. The show was one of the most intense and exciting shows I’ve experienced. The crowd hung on every word during the quiet parts of the songs, and the silence in those moments felt intimate and special. It’s a night I’ll never forget.”