I saw a post a while back on Emma Anderson's Instagram. Emma, for those who don't know, was one of the members of UK band Lush back in the day, and has recently been releasing material under her own name. 

The post mentioned that she was featured on a track on a new album by somebody called Stefano Guzzetti, and that she would be signing copies of the CD at her local record store with her friend, and another featured singer on the song, Heidi Berry. 

Back in the 80s / 90s, the UK label 4AD (whose fans can tend to be a little obsessive, and I count myself amongst their number) put out a series of albums under the name "This Mortal Coil". As far as I remember, these were basically an opportunity for the head of the label (Ivo Watts-Russell) to get his favourite singers to work with him to cover some fantastic legacy tracks. They're most well known for the cover of 'Song to the Siren' featuring Liz Fraser on vocals, but all of their work is fantastic. 

Anyway - as well as Emma and Heid, this new CD features contributions from Ian Masters, Dominic Appleton, Paula Frazer - all of them 4AD alumni from back in the day, and, to a 4AD fan like myself, it was just catnip. 

I;'m happy to say that the full piece is wonderful. As well as the singers mentioned above, there's contributions by Lilies on Mars, and Anne Garner, with covers of tracks by Nick Drake, Steve Miller, as well as His Name Is Alive and Opus III. Guzzetti's instrumental tracks work superbly to help to shape the tracks as a whole, and I actually played the whole album twice through without interruption when it first arrived. It's not an imitation of This Mortal Coil, nor is it a homage. To my mind, it's a piece that does a similar thing, its music that wraps itself around you, surrounds you in its world and beguiles. My standout track is Paula Frazer covering a track by her own band Tarnation but the whole album shines. Top work and signed copies are currently still available from Tough Love.

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