Cocteau Twins
Encyclopedia
Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock
band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals. The original members were Elizabeth Fraser
(vocals), Robin Guthrie
(guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie
(bass guitar), who was replaced by Simon Raymonde
(also bass guitar) early in the band's career.
Though formed in the post-punk
and New Wave
era, the Cocteau Twins tended to defy concise categorisation, and their music was a key influence on dream pop
. Whilst the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia
and mouth music
. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett
writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."
), both from Grangemouth
, Scotland, formed the band in 1979. At a local disco, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who would eventually provide vocals. The band's influences at the time included Joy Division
, The Birthday Party
, Sex Pistols
, Kate Bush
, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band was named after the song "The Cocteau Twins" by fellow Scotsmen 'Johnny and the Self-Abusers' (who later renamed themselves Simple Minds
; the song "The Cocteau Twins" was also re-penned as "No Cure"). Their debut recording, Garlands
(released by 4AD Records in 1982), was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies
EP.
Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig
. He subsequently joined Lowlife
. The band's sound on its first three recordings relied on the combination of Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalist guitar, and Fraser's voice; the Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head over Heels, relied solely on the latter two. This led to the growth of the band's characteristic sound: Fraser's voice, by turns ethereal and earthy, combined with Guthrie's effects-heavy guitars. Guthrie has often said that he is far more interested in the way the guitar is recorded, than in the actual notes being played, though he later admitted the effects and layering were due to his own technical limitations. Like its very dissimilar predecessor, Head over Heels was well-received by the public and press.
In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil
project (this spawned a cover version of Tim Buckley
's "Song to the Siren
" performed by Guthrie and Fraser), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as bass player.
(1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea
(1985), Tiny Dynamine
and Echoes in a Shallow Bay
(1985), and Love's Easy Tears
(1986). Raymonde, who was called in to work on the second album by This Mortal Coil, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand
(1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Raymonde returned to the group for The Moon and the Melodies
(1986), a collaboration with ambient
composer Harold Budd
, which was not released under the Cocteau Twins name.
In 1985, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records
for distribution of the Cocteau Twins' releases in the US and other territories. To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque
(1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back catalogue.
While remaining a 4AD band internationally, the Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records
in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll
, in October of that year.
, released in late 1990. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the higher reaches of the UK charts immediately after its release. However, despite the success of the record and the subsequent concert tours, not everything was well with the band. They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas partly because of conflicts with the label's founder Ivo Watts-Russell
, and were close to breaking up over internal problems due in large part to Guthrie's addiction
to drugs
and alcohol
.
While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Mercury Records
subsidiary Fontana
for the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their US relationship with Capitol. In 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1990, and also included a bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material.
From 1990 noted Japanese guitarist Mitsuo Tate joined the band, as did English guitarist Ben Blakeman.
The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café
, was released in late 1993. It was a departure from the heavily-processed, complex and layered sounds of Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas, featuring clearer and more minimalistic arrangements. This, along with the record's unusually comprehensible lyrics, led to mixed reviews for the album: Some critics accused the group of selling out and producing an 'accessible album,' while others praised the new direction as a felicitous development worthy of comparison with Heaven or Las Vegas. The band themselves explained that Four-Calendar Café was simply a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab
and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser undergoing psychotherapy
. The two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989.
and Otherness
. The former consisted of four gentle acoustic songs, recorded with only piano
, acoustic guitar and voice; Otherness, by contrast, was a collaboration with Seefeel
's Mark Clifford, and featured four electronic remixes of both older and then-unreleased Cocteau Twins songs. Both EPs were labelled 'experimental' by the press, since they were very different from the EPs the band had released in the past.
As it turned out, some of the tracks on both Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses
(1996). The record saw the return of more heavily layered guitars, and Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely. Two singles were taken from the album: Tishbite
and Violaine
; both exist in two CD versions, with different b-sides included on each. The band, augmented by an extra guitarist
and a drummer
, toured extensively to support the album — their last for Mercury/Fontana — and in live performances seemed to have found a cohesive freshness and power that had been lacking during their previous outing in 1993/94. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch", which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, became the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. It was also one of the two songs written and arranged by Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde for Chinese pop singer Faye Wong
for her Mandarin album Fu Zao
released in June 1996, the other being "Tranquil Eye" from Violaine released in October 1996.
In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth LP, the trio disbanded over irreconcilable differences in part related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that they will likely never be finished or released in any form. In the same year Guthrie and Raymonde wrote and performed a new song in Faye Wong's eponymous album
.
, the record label founded by Guthrie and Raymonde, released a double-CD Cocteau Twins compilation entitled BBC Sessions. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with rare and unreleased material included. In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs picked by the band members that had been released during their years with 4AD; all recordings had been digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with the release of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs.
On 31 January 2005, the Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
on 30 April 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates would be added. On 16 March, however, the reunion was canceled, with Fraser pulling out for "personal reasons."
In 2005, 4AD released a worldwide limited edition of 10,000 compilation box set titled, Lullabies to Violaine
, a 4-disc set that details every single and EP released from 1982-1996. This was shortly followed up by two 2-disc sets of the same names, known as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Since March 2007, the band has started podcast
s of exclusive material. On 6 October 2008 the Cocteau Twins accepted the Q Awards
Inspiration Award. This was the first time they have publicly been seen together since the group broke up over 10 years earlier.
In 2009, the Cocteau Twins' song "Alice" was used in Peter Jackson
's film The Lovely Bones
.
Simon Raymonde released the solo album Blame Someone Else. He also produced the posthumous album by Billy Mackenzie
from the Associates, then went on to produce several Domino Records artists like James Yorkston
, Archie Bronson Outfit
(whom he later managed) and Clearlake
. More recently he has produced the UK band The Duke Spirit
and has mixed the Mercury Prize
nominated album The End Of History by Fionn Regan
.
Robin Guthrie
has released three solo albums - Imperial, Continental, and Carousel - and four EPs. He toured extensively with his band Violet Indiana, which included ex-Cocteau's guitarist Mitsuo Tate in the line-up. He has also scored the music for two movies — American indie film Mysterious Skin
and Mexican/Spanish movie 3:19. He also reunited with Harold Budd to collaborate on two companion CDs: Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls. He most recently produced and played guitar on Apollo Heights
debut album, White Music For Black People
Fraser provided guest vocals on Future Sound of London's single "Lifeforms" (1993), vocals for three songs on Massive Attack
's Mezzanine
in 1998 (as well as touring with them several times), and for other, lesser-known projects and groups. For some time, she has been working on a solo album. Fraser provided the vocals for "Lament for Gandalf" in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In 2000 she sang with Peter Gabriel on Ovo : The Millennium Show. In 2005, she worked with Breton musician Yann Tiersen
on two songs for his album Les retrouvailles.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals. The original members were Elizabeth Fraser
Elizabeth Fraser
Elizabeth Davidson Fraser is a Scottish singer best known as the vocalist for the pioneer alternative rock group Cocteau Twins...
(vocals), Robin Guthrie
Robin Guthrie
Robin Guthrie is a musician best known as co-founder of the Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has played guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing...
(guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie
Will Heggie
Will Heggie is a Scottish musician. He co-founded the Cocteau Twins in 1980 with Robin Guthrie, and served as the bassist for them until 1983 . Immediately after departing the Cocteau Twins, he helped form Lowlife and played bass with them from 1983–1997....
(bass guitar), who was replaced by Simon Raymonde
Simon Raymonde
Simon Philip Raymonde is an English musician and record producer. He is the son of the late arranger and composer, Ivor Raymonde.-Career:...
(also bass guitar) early in the band's career.
Though formed in the post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
and New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
era, the Cocteau Twins tended to defy concise categorisation, and their music was a key influence on dream pop
Dream pop
Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, when bands like The Passions, Dif Juz, Lowlife and A.R. Kane began fusing post-punk and ethereal experiments with bittersweet pop melodies into dreamy, sensual soundscapes. The term was almost...
. Whilst the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia
Glossolalia
Glossolalia or speaking in tongues is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables, often as part of religious practice. The significance of glossolalia has varied with time and place, with some considering it a part of a sacred language...
and mouth music
Puirt à beul
Puirt a beul is a traditional form of song native to Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.-Name:The Scottish Gaelic for such a tune is port à beul: "a tune from a mouth—specifically a cheerful tune—which in the plural becomes puirt à beul...
. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett is a library assistant, freelance writer and music journalist. His work has been published in Allmusic, the OC Weekly, Plan B, Metal Edge and The Quietus, while pieces have also appeared in Dream, Arthur, as well as Stylus, The Broken Face, Fake Jazz, Freaky Trigger, Careless Talk...
writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."
Formative years: 1979-1983
Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie (bass guitarBass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), both from Grangemouth
Grangemouth
Grangemouth is a town and former burgh in the council area of Falkirk, Scotland. The town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, east of Falkirk, west of Bo'ness and south-east of Stirling. Grangemouth had a resident population of 17,906 according to the 2001...
, Scotland, formed the band in 1979. At a local disco, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who would eventually provide vocals. The band's influences at the time included Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
, The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party (band)
The Birthday Party were an Australian rock band, active from 1973 to 1983.Despite being championed by John Peel, The Birthday Party found little commercial success during their career...
, Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band was named after the song "The Cocteau Twins" by fellow Scotsmen 'Johnny and the Self-Abusers' (who later renamed themselves Simple Minds
Simple Minds
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band who achieved worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s and best known for their #1 US, Canada and Netherlands hit single "Don't You ", from the soundtrack of the...
; the song "The Cocteau Twins" was also re-penned as "No Cure"). Their debut recording, Garlands
Garlands
For other uses, see Garland Garlands is the 1982 debut album of Cocteau Twins. It is the only album with original bassist Will Heggie.-Track listing:#"Blood Bitch" – 4:34#"Wax and Wane" – 4:04#"But I'm Not" – 2:45...
(released by 4AD Records in 1982), was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies
Lullabies (EP)
Lullabies is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD records on 1 November 1982. The EP features three non-album tracks and was released just a few months after their debut album....
EP.
Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig
Peppermint Pig
Peppermint Pig is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD records in March 1983. In its original release, the limited-edition 7-inch single featured "Peppermint Pig" and "Laugh Lines"...
. He subsequently joined Lowlife
Lowlife (band)
Lowlife was a Scottish alternative rock/dream pop band, active from 1985 to 1997. Although the group never obtained mainstream popularity, they developed a cult following that continues to this day.-Pre Lowlife:...
. The band's sound on its first three recordings relied on the combination of Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalist guitar, and Fraser's voice; the Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head over Heels, relied solely on the latter two. This led to the growth of the band's characteristic sound: Fraser's voice, by turns ethereal and earthy, combined with Guthrie's effects-heavy guitars. Guthrie has often said that he is far more interested in the way the guitar is recorded, than in the actual notes being played, though he later admitted the effects and layering were due to his own technical limitations. Like its very dissimilar predecessor, Head over Heels was well-received by the public and press.
In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil was a gothic dream pop supergroup led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many of whom...
project (this spawned a cover version of Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
's "Song to the Siren
Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley song)
"Song to the Siren" is a song written by Tim Buckley and his writing partner Larry Beckett and was first released on Buckley's 1970 album Starsailor...
" performed by Guthrie and Fraser), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as bass player.
Rise to fame: 1984-1989
With Raymonde, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs that explored their new style. These included The Spangle MakerThe Spangle Maker
The Spangle Maker is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD records in April 1984. It was the first recording to be released after Simon Raymonde joined the band...
(1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea
Aikea-Guinea
Aikea-Guinea is a 7-inch single and EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD records in March 1985. The 7-inch format features two non-album tracks, the EP also features these plus another two....
(1985), Tiny Dynamine
Tiny Dynamine
Tiny Dynamine is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD Records. The EP features four non-album tracks. It was issued on 15 November 1985, two weeks prior to another EP entitled Echoes in a Shallow Bay. The two EP sets, which feature complementary artwork, were also...
and Echoes in a Shallow Bay
Echoes in a Shallow Bay
Echoes in a Shallow Bay is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD. The EP features four non-album tracks. It was issued on 29 November 1985 two weeks after another EP entitled Tiny Dynamine. The two EP sets, which feature complementary artwork, were also released combined...
(1985), and Love's Easy Tears
Love's Easy Tears
Love's Easy Tears is an EP by the Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was released by 4AD in September 1986 as a 12" single and later re-released with the 4th track Orange Appled included...
(1986). Raymonde, who was called in to work on the second album by This Mortal Coil, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand
Victorialand
Victorialand is the fourth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins. Working without member Simon Raymonde, who had been enlisted to work on This Mortal Coil's Filigree & Shadow album, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie produced a record almost completely devoid of...
(1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Raymonde returned to the group for The Moon and the Melodies
The Moon and the Melodies
The Moon and the Melodies is the product of a one-off collaboration between the Scottish group Cocteau Twins and the American composer Harold Budd....
(1986), a collaboration with ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
composer Harold Budd
Harold Budd
Harold Budd is an American ambient/avant-garde composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised in the Mojave Desert, and was inspired at an early age by the humming tone caused by wind blown across telephone wires....
, which was not released under the Cocteau Twins name.
In 1985, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records
Relativity Records
Relativity Records, often branded just Relativity, is an American record label founded by Barry Kobrin at the site of his company, Important Record Distribution in metro New York. Early on, as an indie label, Relativity released music in a variety of styles, including dance, jazz, punk, and...
for distribution of the Cocteau Twins' releases in the US and other territories. To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque
The Pink Opaque
The Pink Opaque is a 1986 compilation album composed of tracks originally recorded between 1982 and 1985 by Cocteau Twins. A joint release by the UK-based 4AD and the USA-based Relativity Records, it was the band's the first official domestic USA release.-History:After signing to 4AD in 1982,...
(1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back catalogue.
While remaining a 4AD band internationally, the Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll
Blue Bell Knoll
Blue Bell Knoll is the fifth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins.This was the first LP by the Twins to receive major-label distribution in the USA, as it was originally licensed by Capitol Records from 4AD for North American release...
, in October of that year.
Mainstream success: 1990-1994
The style the group had begun exploring with Head over Heels reached its peak on Heaven or Las VegasHeaven or Las Vegas
Heaven or Las Vegas is a 1990 album by Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, their last for the music label 4AD. In terms of chart positions, it is the most successful Cocteau Twins album, reaching number seven in the UK. The album is noteworthy for the musical evolution the band was showing at the time...
, released in late 1990. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the higher reaches of the UK charts immediately after its release. However, despite the success of the record and the subsequent concert tours, not everything was well with the band. They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas partly because of conflicts with the label's founder Ivo Watts-Russell
Ivo Watts-Russell
Ivo Watts-Russell was joint-founder with Peter Kent of the English indie record label 4AD. He has also produced several records, himself preferring to use the term "musical director" to explain his role in the creation....
, and were close to breaking up over internal problems due in large part to Guthrie's addiction
Substance use disorder
Substance use disorders include substance abuse and substance dependence. In DSM-IV, the conditions are formally diagnosed as one or the other, but it has been proposed that DSM-5 combine the two into a single condition called "Substance-use disorder"....
to drugs
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
and alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
.
While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
subsidiary Fontana
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
for the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their US relationship with Capitol. In 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1990, and also included a bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material.
From 1990 noted Japanese guitarist Mitsuo Tate joined the band, as did English guitarist Ben Blakeman.
The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café
Four-Calendar Café
Four-Calendar Café is the eighth and penultimate album by three-piece Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was originally released in 1993 on Fontana...
, was released in late 1993. It was a departure from the heavily-processed, complex and layered sounds of Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas, featuring clearer and more minimalistic arrangements. This, along with the record's unusually comprehensible lyrics, led to mixed reviews for the album: Some critics accused the group of selling out and producing an 'accessible album,' while others praised the new direction as a felicitous development worthy of comparison with Heaven or Las Vegas. The band themselves explained that Four-Calendar Café was simply a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab
Drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser undergoing psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
. The two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989.
Latest releases and break-up: 1995-1997
1995 saw the release of two new EPs: TwinlightsTwinlights
Twinlights is a 1995 EP by the Cocteau Twins. It was released along with the EP Otherness as a teaser for the album Milk and Kisses...
and Otherness
Otherness (EP)
Otherness is a 1995 EP by the Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was released along with Twinlights as a teaser for the full length album Milk and Kisses. While it was a companion piece to Twinlights, it was very different in style. Otherness a remix album, the only such album released by the band...
. The former consisted of four gentle acoustic songs, recorded with only piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, acoustic guitar and voice; Otherness, by contrast, was a collaboration with Seefeel
Seefeel
Seefeel are a British electronic/post-rock band formed in the early 1990s. They are currently signed to Warp Records.-Biography:Seefeel formed during 1992 in London, England; with Mark Clifford on guitar, Mark Van Hoen on bass, Justin Fletcher on drums and Sarah Peacock on vocals and guitar. During...
's Mark Clifford, and featured four electronic remixes of both older and then-unreleased Cocteau Twins songs. Both EPs were labelled 'experimental' by the press, since they were very different from the EPs the band had released in the past.
As it turned out, some of the tracks on both Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses
Milk and Kisses
Milk & Kisses is an album by Cocteau Twins issued in 1996. It proved their last; a meeting two years later to record a new album ended with the breakup of the band....
(1996). The record saw the return of more heavily layered guitars, and Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely. Two singles were taken from the album: Tishbite
Tishbite (song)
"Tishbite" is a single by three-piece Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was released by Fontana Records in March 1996. It was the first single to be released from the Milk and Kisses album.Five tracks were released across two CDs...
and Violaine
Violaine
"Violaine" is a single by the Cocteau Twins. It was released by Fontana Records in July 1996. It was the second single to be released from the Milk and Kisses album, and their last ever single to be released from a non-compilation album....
; both exist in two CD versions, with different b-sides included on each. The band, augmented by an extra guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and a drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, toured extensively to support the album — their last for Mercury/Fontana — and in live performances seemed to have found a cohesive freshness and power that had been lacking during their previous outing in 1993/94. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch", which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, became the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. It was also one of the two songs written and arranged by Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde for Chinese pop singer Faye Wong
Faye Wong
Faye Wong is a highly successful and influential Chinese singer-songwriter and actress who is usually referred to as a diva . Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong . Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and rose to stardom in the early 1990s by singing...
for her Mandarin album Fu Zao
Fu Zao (Faye Wong album)
Fu Zao is a 1996 album by the C-pop singer Faye Wong; the Chinese title is variously translated into English as Restless, Impatience, Anxiety and other similar words. The Japanese release included the English translation Anxiety on the obi strip.Many consider it her boldest and most artistically...
released in June 1996, the other being "Tranquil Eye" from Violaine released in October 1996.
In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth LP, the trio disbanded over irreconcilable differences in part related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that they will likely never be finished or released in any form. In the same year Guthrie and Raymonde wrote and performed a new song in Faye Wong's eponymous album
Faye Wong (1997 album)
Faye Wong is a self-titled album by C-pop singer Faye Wong. Her first recording with EMI, it was recorded in Beijing and released in 1997, around the time that she relocated to Beijing after several years of success in Hong Kong....
.
Post-breakup activity: 1998-present
In 1999, Bella UnionBella Union
Bella Union is an independent record label that was started up by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie in 1997.After releasing records with 4AD for a large part of their career, Cocteau Twins decided to take a step towards independence and started up the Bella Union record label, through which they...
, the record label founded by Guthrie and Raymonde, released a double-CD Cocteau Twins compilation entitled BBC Sessions. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with rare and unreleased material included. In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs picked by the band members that had been released during their years with 4AD; all recordings had been digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with the release of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs.
On 31 January 2005, the Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
on 30 April 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates would be added. On 16 March, however, the reunion was canceled, with Fraser pulling out for "personal reasons."
In 2005, 4AD released a worldwide limited edition of 10,000 compilation box set titled, Lullabies to Violaine
Lullabies to Violaine
Lullabies to Violaine is a Cocteau Twins boxset released by 4AD Records in October 2005. Comprising four CDs, the boxset collects the tracks from every Cocteau Twins EP from "Lullabies" to "Violaine".- CD One :#Lullabies...
, a 4-disc set that details every single and EP released from 1982-1996. This was shortly followed up by two 2-disc sets of the same names, known as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Since March 2007, the band has started podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s of exclusive material. On 6 October 2008 the Cocteau Twins accepted the Q Awards
Q Awards
The Q Awards are the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine Q. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards have become one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards, helped in no small part by the often boisterous behavior of the celebrities who attend the event...
Inspiration Award. This was the first time they have publicly been seen together since the group broke up over 10 years earlier.
In 2009, the Cocteau Twins' song "Alice" was used in Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's film The Lovely Bones
The Lovely Bones (film)
The Lovely Bones is a 2009 American drama film directed by Peter Jackson. It is a film adaptation of the award-winning and best-selling 2002 novel of the same name by Alice Sebold. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, alongside Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as Susie's parents Jack and...
.
Solo work
The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. In addition to forming Bella Union, Guthrie and Raymonde have produced releases from new bands signed to that label.Simon Raymonde released the solo album Blame Someone Else. He also produced the posthumous album by Billy Mackenzie
Billy Mackenzie
William MacArthur "Billy" Mackenzie was a Scottish singer, with a distinctive falsetto voice best known as a member of The Associates.- Biography :...
from the Associates, then went on to produce several Domino Records artists like James Yorkston
James Yorkston
-Music career:A native of Fife, James Yorkston was an integral early member of the Fence Collective whose reach across contemporary music continues to lengthen: King Creosote, The Aliens, KT Tunstall, The Beta Band...
, Archie Bronson Outfit
Archie Bronson Outfit
Archie Bronson Outfit are an English rock band. They met at Kingswood School, Bath .After leaving their native Somerset, the band moved to London where they were discovered by Laurence Bell, boss of Domino Records. The band were playing in Bell's local bar, "The Cat's Back" in Putney. The band...
(whom he later managed) and Clearlake
Clearlake (band)
Clearlake are an indie rock band, based in Brighton, England. The members of the band are:*Jason Pegg *David 'Woody' Woodward *Toby May *Jim Briffett -History:...
. More recently he has produced the UK band The Duke Spirit
The Duke Spirit
The Duke Spirit are an English rock band based in London. Their sound has been seen as a melding of many influences ranging from the alternative noise of 1980s/90s guitar bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3, the tremulous rock n roll of bands such as The Gun Club and The...
and has mixed the Mercury Prize
Mercury Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British...
nominated album The End Of History by Fionn Regan
Fionn Regan
Fionn Regan is an Irish singer-songwriter and artist from Bray, County Wicklow, who came to prominence in 2006 with the release of his Mercury-nominated debut album, The End of History...
.
Robin Guthrie
Robin Guthrie
Robin Guthrie is a musician best known as co-founder of the Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has played guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing...
has released three solo albums - Imperial, Continental, and Carousel - and four EPs. He toured extensively with his band Violet Indiana, which included ex-Cocteau's guitarist Mitsuo Tate in the line-up. He has also scored the music for two movies — American indie film Mysterious Skin
Mysterious Skin
Mysterious Skin is a 2004 drama film directed by American filmmaker Gregg Araki, who also wrote the screenplay based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Scott Heim...
and Mexican/Spanish movie 3:19. He also reunited with Harold Budd to collaborate on two companion CDs: Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls. He most recently produced and played guitar on Apollo Heights
Apollo Heights
Apollo Heights are an American shoegazer band that was formed in New York City in 2002. Consisting mainly of twin brothers, Daniel and Danny Chavis, they play experimental rock music. They cite AR Kane and My Bloody Valentine as a major inspiration...
debut album, White Music For Black People
Fraser provided guest vocals on Future Sound of London's single "Lifeforms" (1993), vocals for three songs on Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
's Mezzanine
Mezzanine (album)
Mezzanine is the third studio album by English trip hop group Massive Attack, released on 20 April 1998. It was produced by Neil Davidge along with the group. The album was released on Virgin Records....
in 1998 (as well as touring with them several times), and for other, lesser-known projects and groups. For some time, she has been working on a solo album. Fraser provided the vocals for "Lament for Gandalf" in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In 2000 she sang with Peter Gabriel on Ovo : The Millennium Show. In 2005, she worked with Breton musician Yann Tiersen
Yann Tiersen
Yann Tiersen is a musician from France. His musical career is split between studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks with a distinctive sound that is always involved...
on two songs for his album Les retrouvailles.
Discography
- GarlandsGarlandsFor other uses, see Garland Garlands is the 1982 debut album of Cocteau Twins. It is the only album with original bassist Will Heggie.-Track listing:#"Blood Bitch" – 4:34#"Wax and Wane" – 4:04#"But I'm Not" – 2:45...
(1982) - Head over Heels (1983)
- Treasure (1984)
- VictorialandVictorialandVictorialand is the fourth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins. Working without member Simon Raymonde, who had been enlisted to work on This Mortal Coil's Filigree & Shadow album, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie produced a record almost completely devoid of...
(1986) - Blue Bell KnollBlue Bell KnollBlue Bell Knoll is the fifth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins.This was the first LP by the Twins to receive major-label distribution in the USA, as it was originally licensed by Capitol Records from 4AD for North American release...
(1988) - Heaven or Las VegasHeaven or Las VegasHeaven or Las Vegas is a 1990 album by Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, their last for the music label 4AD. In terms of chart positions, it is the most successful Cocteau Twins album, reaching number seven in the UK. The album is noteworthy for the musical evolution the band was showing at the time...
(1990) - Four-Calendar CaféFour-Calendar CaféFour-Calendar Café is the eighth and penultimate album by three-piece Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was originally released in 1993 on Fontana...
(1993) - Milk and KissesMilk and KissesMilk & Kisses is an album by Cocteau Twins issued in 1996. It proved their last; a meeting two years later to record a new album ended with the breakup of the band....
(1996)
External links
- Cocteau Twins on 4AD4AD4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
website - Strangeways Radio Station where Simon Raymonde broadcasts Beneath The Surface