Cocteau Twins

The Cocteau Twins were a British band that existed from 1980 to 1998. The coined by her melancholy and dreamy guitar pop influenced a number of later founded bands, including My Bloody Valentine, All About Eve, Lush, Bel Canto, Seefeel, Slowdive, Beach House and School of Seven Bells.

  • 2.1 albums
  • 2.2 Singles and EPs
  • 2.3 compilations
  • 2.4 Robin Guthrie solo
  • 2.5 Simon Raymonde solo
  • 2.6 Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd
  • 2.7 Robin Guthrie & John Foxx
  • 2.8 Eraldo Bernocchi, Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie

History

The start time

The Cocteau Twins were established in 1980 in Grangemouth, Scotland. The name goes back to an early song of the Scottish New Wave band Simple Minds, which can be heard in a slightly different form as No Cure on their debut album, Life in a Day (1979).

The origins of the band in the punk music. About her first album, the Court of Rolling Stone: " do not write any songs, they cut the sound. " And the magazine Mojo marveled especially about the singer Liz Fraser and their vocalizations in the song Know Who You Are at Every Age: " This chorus is one of the most beautiful ever recorded passages of music. "

The singer Liz Fraser had together with the oil refinery engineer and sound - tinkerer Robin Guthrie and bassist Will Heggie in his native Scotland with it's " ridiculed as reverently were singing " (Rolling Stone) tries to find an audience. When this failed, the trio went to London in 1981, hoping to find with the help of the famous BBC disc jockey John Peel, a record company that she was to take with her ​​unusual music under contract. Although Peel made ​​some recordings with the Cocteau Twins to their first record deal helped the musicians but disk Seller Simon Raymonde (formerly member of the band Drowning Craze ), the Fraser, Guthrie and Heggie to Ivo Watts - Russell, the owner of the then newly founded Independent label 4AD, mediated. Watts - Russell took them under contract and published in 1982 her debut album Garlands.

The 1980s

At the turn of 1982/83, the band toured with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark by Britain. Within a short time the musicians Fraser and Guthrie were integrated into the London music scene and worked on the music of other projects such as This Mortal Coil, the house band of 4AD, with. Of particular note here is the cover version of Tim Buckley Song to the Siren piece on the first album by This Mortal Coil ( It'll End in Tears, 1984). Heggie left the group to eventually continue playing in the alternative band Lowlife, and was replaced by Raymonde. In rapid succession, the Cocteau Twins released more LPs and singles, appeared in the British television music series Top of the Pops, thus leaving the small circle of the independent charts. With Treasure (1984 ), Victoria Land (1986) and Blue Bell Knoll ( 1988) stretch the Cocteau Twins their " dream pop " ( Mojo ) on. Blue Bell Knoll so far forms a turning point in the musical development of the band, as here, the massive use of studio technology and the alienation of the guitar sounds reached a climax. This meant that the band later initially distanced from that album and the successor Heaven or Las Vegas ( 1990) a clear focus shifted back in favor of songwriting.

Blue Bell Knoll is still the only 4AD release, in addition to the then -standard formats (CD, LP, MC) also appeared as DAT.

The 1990s

In the U.S., most of their records were not published until the early 1990s, after they had in 1990 made ​​their first U.S. tour.

At the same time, Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde searched for new orientation: They left the independent label 4AD and signed a contract with Fontana. While Raymonde worked for individual projects with the bands Lush and Moose, Liz Fraser perfected a clarity of her lyrics. Meanwhile, the mother of a daughter, she mused in her texts on her body, over the loss of the self, on the question whether a man for them is good or rather " poisoning " ( Lyrics Bluebeard ).

The final phase

Did the Cocteau Twins early 1990s still represent a vanguard (1991 Fraser was nominated as best singer for the Brit Awards), so let ambient and drum and bass to their music were already doing the mid-1990s dusty. The group tried the one with the EP Otherness (1995 ) counteract, but sat in the meantime bands like Portishead the standards. However, their music was not the cause of the Cocteau Twins. With Milk & Kisses 1996 they returned to their essential beginnings back.

In 1998, the band parted ways. Just one year earlier had Guthrie and Raymonde founded the label Bella Union, the, The Wave Room or Dirty Three took not only artists like Françoiz Breut under contract, but in addition also the other works of the two label founder and 1999, the photographs of the Cocteau Twins for the BBC has published.

Liz Fraser worked with, among others, with Massive Attack ( Teardrop ) and Yann Tiersen. The publication of an announced for autumn 2007 solo LP never materialized. Robin Guthrie founded at the beginning of the new millennium with ex- singer Siobhan de Maré mono- band Violet Indiana.

A reunion concert was scheduled for 30 April 2005 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, but was canceled again in advance.

Discography

Albums

Singles and EPs

Compilations

Robin Guthrie solo

  • 2003: Imperial
  • 2006: Continental
  • 2008: 3:19 (Soundtrack)
  • 2009: Carousel
  • 2011: Emeralds

Simon Raymonde solo

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd

  • 2005: Mysterious Skin (Soundtrack)
  • 2007: After the Night Falls • Before the Day Breaks
  • 2011: Bordeaux

Robin Guthrie & John Foxx

  • 2009: Mirror Ball

Eraldo Bernocchi, Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie

  • 2011: Winter Garden
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