Welsh singer-songwriter Gareth Bonello, better known as The Gentle Good, returned this spring with Elan—a vivid, genre-bending meditation on landscape, language, and identity. Released on May 16, 2025, the album marks his sixth studio effort and his most sonically ambitious to date. Born of a year-long artistic residency in the remote Cambrian Mountains of Wales, Elan is a love letter to the Elan Valley—its beauty, its history, and its stories, both whispered and thunderous.

Named after the valley flooded in the 1890s to provide water for Birmingham, Elan is a bilingual concept album that weaves together traditional Welsh folk, psychedelic textures, and experimental soundscapes. Bonello, a long-celebrated torchbearer for Welsh folk music, pushes his craft into new territory here, layering his delicate acoustic guitar work and lyrical vocals with electric guitars, French horn, vintage synthesizers, and cinematic string arrangements by Seb Goldfinch.

The album was recorded at Tŷ Drwg Studios in Cardiff, with longtime collaborator Frank Naughton engineering and playing bass. Drummer Andy Fung adds both rhythm and rich backing vocals, while contributions from Radnorshire guitar wizard Toby Hay, Rajasthani folk fusionists SAZ, and the inimitable Laura J Martin lend Elan a truly global dimension.