This Mortal Coil

This Mortal Coil was the creation of Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the 4AD label, who assembled a rotating collective of musicians and vocalists — including Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, Howard Devoto, and many others — to create music of extraordinary atmospheric beauty. The project was conceived as a vehicle for Watts-Russell's vision of music as pure emotional experience, and the results were consistently haunting and beautiful.

'It'll End in Tears' (1984) was their debut — a record of extraordinary beauty that produced a devastating cover of Tim Buckley's 'Song to the Siren', sung by Elizabeth Fraser, that became one of the most haunting recordings in the history of British music. 'Filigree & Shadow' (1986) and 'Blood' (1991) were equally atmospheric, and the project's influence on dream pop and gothic music was immense.

This Mortal Coil dissolved in 1991 following the completion of 'Blood'. They are remembered as one of the most beautiful and haunting acts of the 1980s British music scene — a collective whose combination of atmospheric production, extraordinary vocal performances, and Watts-Russell's singular vision produced music of lasting emotional power.