Harold Budd/Elizabeth Fraser/Robin Guthrie/Simon Raymonde: The Moon and the Melodies [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 4AD reissue carries a fresh remaster by Robin Guthrie himself, on a heavy card-stock jacket and inner sleeve. It's the one full album Cocteau Twins made with Harold Budd, a quiet bridge between dream pop and ambient music.

This edition

• Remastered by Robin Guthrie
• Heavy card-stock jacket
• Printed inner sleeve
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Look for the words Cocteau Twins on the sleeve and you won't find them. In 1986 Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde credited themselves by name alongside Harold Budd, the American minimalist best known for his piano work with Brian Eno. The spark was a proposed television series about cross-genre collaborations, and Guthrie and Raymonde liked the idea so much they rang Budd themselves.

What came out is mostly instrumental: Budd's slow, sustained piano drifting through Guthrie's treated guitars and Raymonde's bass, with Richard Thomas of Dif Juz adding saxophone. Fraser sings on four of the eight tracks, and "Sea, Swallow Me" and "Eyes Are Mosaics" are as lovely as anything in the Cocteaus' catalogue, while "Memory Gongs" and "Ooze Out And Away, Onehow" float off into pure atmosphere. Raymonde later called the sessions a moment in time between friends enjoying making music together.

It sits neatly between Victorialand and Budd's own records with Eno, and it still sounds like nothing else on 4AD. Ideal for late evenings, rainy Sundays and anyone who has ever wished a reverb pedal could hold a conversation.

Also at Kops: more Cocteau Twins on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# 4AD0642LP), a reissue of the 1986 album.