The Cocteau Twins and composer Harold Budd joined forces in 1986 to put out a collaborative studio album entitled The Moon and the Melodies. Nearly forty years later, the project is receiving a vinyl repressing.
Ethereal and dreamy, the LP converges the minimalist and improvised compositions of Budd, who passed away in 2020, with Elizabeth Fraser’s floating vocals on four songs, while another four favor the composer’s meandering, poem-like style. The Cocteau Twins are also credited on the LP not by their band name but rather individually as Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde.
Guthrie has remastered the original tapes from The Moon and the Melodies recording sessions, which took place over a few weeks at the band’s home studio in West London.
Reflecting on the album’s origins, Raymonde recalled that their group’s recording process was “always about making something that’s pleasurable, capturing a moment in time between friends that are enjoying making music together. Really, that’s the essence of it—the music was just a reflection of how nice a time we were having in the studio.”
The Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd’s The Moon and the Melodies vinyl reissue is available for pre-order now on the 4AD website.
