Dear fans, friends, and followers,
In these cynical, disorienting, and frequently dark times, nostalgia for the past — whatever past one finds most reassuring and comforting — is natural. Music, especially, has a way of connecting us to memories and feelings of days gone by. So it’s a rare thing indeed for an artist to have created something that not only seems to defy the ravages of time that put it in a dusty box or morph it into kitsch, but endures beyond the context in which it was created. (I’m deliberately trying to avoid the word ‘transcendent', here, but I hope you get my meaning.)
If you weren’t alive at the time, you’d probably never guess that a song like ‘Hitherto’ was recorded in 1983, [does math] which is almost 40 years ago now. That song should be having its mid-life crisis, and it still sounds like a wee bairn! No one spins a Cocteaus song — not even ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’ — at ‘80s Night or at wedding parties to get everyone on the dance floor and we are all better for it, I’m sure. And yet, many people remember where they were and what they felt when they heard their first Cocteau Twins song. That’s something, right?1
The Ivors seem to think so. The UK’s venerated Ivor (as in Novello) Awards — The Ivors, for short — which “celebrates creative excellence by British and Irish songwriters and screen composers,” has chosen to honour Cocteau Twins with this year’s “Visionary Award.”
The ceremony took place on 19 May in London. Both Elizabeth and Robin — who have not appeared together in public in many years — were present to accept the award. Simon, alas, was unavailable, but fellow musician, friend, and Cocteau fan John Grant accepted on his behalf. (I wasn’t able to rustle up any video of that part of the event, unfortunately, but if you happen upon it let us know, ok?)
(NB: In the email we sent on the 19th, we mistakenly said that neither Elizabeth nor Robin were present to accept their awards. Sorry for that.)
Simon wrote on social media:
Thanks to the @ivorsacademy for this very special award. Honoured to receive this today and huge huge thanks to my dear friend and colleague @johngrantofficial for accepting the award on my behalf in my absence. So happy for Elizabeth and Robin too, feels good even 25 years after we stopped making music together that we received this accolade for our work in #cocteautwins. It shows that time has been fairly kind to our work and that recognition even in the autumn of our lives, is very much appreciated. It is rare for the band to receive such attention, and while I live very much in the present day with my own music (@losthorizonsband), with the label @bella_union and @bellaunionmgmt, I will allow myself a moment of quiet contemplation to consider this beautiful wee “pat on the back”.
This marks only the second award Cocteau Twins ever received — both of them in the years since they disbanded, and both for their collective body of work and unique contributions to music. The first was the Q “Inspiration Award,” which the trio received in 2008 and accepted in person. Robin Guthrie said, ‘So many people tell us all the time that the music we made back then stayed with them, so that’s really good. It’s lovely to be part of that,’ while Liz remarked that it was the first thing they’d ever won. Funny how that happens.
The other funny thing is, they probably would never claim that ‘visionary’ label for themselves because they never quite had much of a vision, per se; they just made up songs as they went along, putting records out into the world whenever they felt like they were good enough, and reinvesting much of their earnings into new and better gear and studio space. It was very much an unplanned career, and they never pretended otherwise. There was no grand design or intent, though everyone seemed to think there was. (Ask any thwarted journalist who tried to interview them, especially in the ‘80s, looking to crack open what it was that made Cocteau Twins music so special. Armed with notepad and tape recorder, they’d come away with giggly, profane anecdotes about stuffed animals and housekeeping habits or really geeky explanations about their studio setup.) It was only in the ‘90s that things started to seem more professional and better-managed, and that’s because they were (plus, they were married with children by then) but — with very few exceptions, like Twinlights and Otherness, and perhaps some of the work on Milk & Kisses — the music happened the same way it always did which, in the end, is probably at least part of the reason why it couldn’t go on.
Without intending to, in the summertime of their lives, they created something timeless, unrepeatable, and enormously influential. Call it visionary.
Sun’s Signature (AKA Elizabeth Fraser & Damon Reece) release “Underwater”
“Release” is probably too formal a description, but they’ve put out a video — with lyrics (what?!) — for another track off their eponymous debut EP, which officially dropped in April (or possibly not?) and which we think only a handful of people actually possess (or possibly don’t?). Partisan Records promises physical copies coming 18th June, and it will be available for digital download.
Anyway, “Underwater” is a re-work of the song Fraser originally released on white label in 2000, when she was still heavily inspired by trip-hop and dance music. Some of those elements remain, and it’s still recognisable, but twenty or so years have obviously had an impact. It’s really lovely, and tracks closely to the version she performed live in 2012 at the Meltdown Festival. (Bonus points if you can spot the connection between the lyrics and Simon’s above Instagram post.)
We all justifiably loathe social media (right?) but you should still follow Liz & Damon here, here, and here, because at least they’re unlikely to use it like that dreadful aunt or uncle who constantly posts conspiracy theories and ruins every holiday.
Simon Raymonde at Sound + Vision Cambridge
Simon appeared at this year’s Sound + Vision festival in Cambridge, and sat for a live interview with John Robb. He spoke at length about the independent music business, his work as head of Bella Union, his father Ivor, how he got into music, his own work as part of Lost Horizons, and of course his legacy as a Cocteau Twin.
On his late father, the musician, composer, and producer Ivor Raymonde, who died in 1990:
It’s hard to say he was an inspiration because obviously a father with that amount of amazing musical history behind him should be, but because he died so young, and I was like a snotty nosed punk when I was fifteen, sixteen, I wasn’t really that impressed with my dad until he passed away, and then as the years wore on I suddenly kind of realised that it’s not just the Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Scott Walker/Walker Brothers stuff that he did. There was thousands of other tracks that I was actually even more interested in, like Northern Soul tracks — you know, he worked with the Ojays — he worked with just like a huge range of people that I didn’t know anything about. So probably age kind of, 40, I started going, ‘Blimey, my dad wasn’t very cool, but I think he’s even more cool than I realised.’ And I started really deep diving into YouTube and Discogs and record shops and just finding more and more and more about him, trying to collect as much stuff — mint copies of everything that he did — that’s what I started doing. Not with a view of putting a record out, initially, it was just with a view of just being close to him in that way… The discovery was quite late in life.
Robin Guthrie Interviewed on “The Hustle” Podcast
Just after our last newsletter hit your inbox, Robin got on the phone with Jon Lamoreaux of Denver-based podcast “The Hustle” to talk about his long and distinguished career, his thoughts on the music industry, parenting, family, his late friend and frequent collaborator Harold Budd, and the recent bounty of new music he has released, including his latest solo LP, Pearldiving.
Six weeks before we made Garlands my father passed away. I kind of didn’t really know that until a couple of months ago because I kinda knew that he’d died when I was young but I wasn’t really quite sure when it was because I just basically ran away from home at that point with Liz because she was my girlfriend and we just didn’t go home again. And then I was 60 and I see that date written down on paper, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s how that worked.’ That was quite profound. When I’m working on music and when I’m working on things in my life, there are things that cross over, and things that make concrete sense… I needn’t explain my music. If I need to explain it then I’m doing it wrong. Why are things titled this way? It’s not by chance… Inspiration is pulled from many places.
A tweet from Simon
That’s all for now, friends.
Thanks for reading. And, hey, if you happen to remember the first time you heard Cocteau Twins, post a comment and tell us about it! Those are good memories.
Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos of people listening to Cocteau Twins records for the first time and reacting to them? It’s actually kind of hilarious, but also sweet, because they’re usually very young and know nothing about the band at all, so their reactions are genuine, if occasionally cringe. The point is, new generations keep discovering this music and falling in love with it, and that’s wonderful.