This Mortal Coil are the creators of some of the most
beautiful music of the modern age. Ivo Watts-Russell
is the founder of 4AD records, and felt that he was a
frustrated musician. Once he had the means, he signed
bands that caught his attention in various ways -- and
he has excellent taste. After he started assembling
this collection of interesting, talented, and diverse
musicians, he created This Mortal Coil as a
supergroup for the label. With Ivo
conducting, and John Fryer engineering, these three
albums are all amazing soundscapes. Subjectively,
this "band" ranks as one of my favorite bands ever;
I can only begin to describe how much depth they
added to my life so far.
The name comes from the same famous Shakespearean
soliloquy as the phrase To be, or not to be:
both spoken by Hamlet.
Common threads through all three albums include
the production and engineering team mentioned above,
and certain session players (Martin McCarrick for all
three albums, Diedre and
Louise Rutkowski on the last two). Also, many of
these songs are actually covers of early '70s
synth-folk songs by the likes of Tim Buckley and
Chris Bell. Ivo certainly
made them his own, and it's a shock to hear the
original versions after becoming accustomed to the
TMC versions. Finally, all of these works are
definitely poignant, to the point of being too dark
for some people.
The 1984 album It'll End In Tears
is the most varied and
least cohesive of the three. At the same time,
its very jaggedness strikes a nerve that the later,
smoother works don't quite reach. It features the
following artists (in order of appearance):
Gordon Sharp (Cindytalk),
Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins),
Martin McCarrick,
Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins),
Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins),
Howard Devoto,
Steven Young (Colourbox),
Gini Ball,
Mark Cox (The Wolfgang Press),
Martyn Young (Colourbox),
Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance),
Brendan Perry (Dead Can Dance),
Robbie Grey (Modern English), and
Manuela Rickers (X-Mal Deutschland).
Their 1986 release
filigree & shadow
is, in my opinion, their masterwork. A 74-minute
musical journey that is as magical, mystical,
and emotional as any other experience I've ever
had. More details are available at that node, but
the artists participating in this collection include:
Dominic Appleton,
Simon Raymonde,
David Curtis,
John Turner,
Alison Limerick,
Jean,
Peter Ulrich,
Keith Mitchell,
Nigel K. Hine,
Anne Turner,
Les McKuen,
Richenel,
Chris Pye,
Caroline Seaman,
Alan Curtis,
Mark Cox,
Andrew Gray,
Steven Young, and
Tony Waera (on digeridoo, no less!).
Blood was their third and final album,
released in 1991.
It is even darker than
filigree & shadow,
and almost
as powerful. Standout tracks include most of the first
even-numbered tracks, cresting at "I Come and Stand
at Every Door". Notable additions on this album are
more recent 4AD alumni
Kim Deal (Pixies, Breeders, Amps) and
Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses,
Breeders, Belly),
new talent Caroline Crawley
(of Shelleyan Orphan, with an amazingly husky yet
child-like voice). Overall, a fabulous release --
Still one of my top 10, even if
filigree & shadow
manages to outshine it.
4AD has a another project, The Hope Blister,
that was intended to
be "kind of a sequel to This Mortal Coil". Their
only album to date is ...Smile's Ok;
I don't find it as powerful as the TMC work, but it's
still quite formidable on its own. Some of the same
artists appear: Louise Rutkowski does most of the
vocals, John Fryer does the mixing, and
Ivo Watts-Russell does the producing. The songs are
mostly covers again, if of a more recent vintage.