Filigree & Shadow

2 LPs on 1 CD.
Personnel: Dominic Appleton, Deidre Rutkowski, Richenel, Jean, Caroline Seaman, Louise Rutkowski (vocals); Ivo, John Fryer (various instruments, programming); Keith Mitchell, Nigel K. Hine, Chris Pye, Alan Curtis, Andrew Gray, David Curtis (guitar); Gini Ball (violin, viola); Martin McCarrick (cello, background vocals); Richard Thomas (saxophone); Tony Waera (didgeridoo); John Turner (organ, keyboards); Mark Cox (percussion); Steven Young (drum programming); Anne Turner, Les McKuen, (background vocals).
Engineers: John Turner, John Fryer, Robert Lee.
Recorded at Blackwing Studios, London, England and Palladium Studios, Edinburgh, Scotland.
This Mortal Coil is something of a pet project for 4AD, the British label responsible for some of the 1980s' most cutting edge alternative music. Not exactly a band, TMC is an ever-shifting, collaborative outfit that includes members of such 4AD groups as the Cocteau Twins, Modern English, Dead Can Dance, Color Box, and Wolfgang Press. True to the label's aesthetic, the music on FILIGREE AND SHADOW is ethereal, abstract, dreamlike and sometimes spooky.
Like the group's debut IT'LL END IN TEARS, FILIGREE focuses primarily on covers of songs by seminal rock artists. Creative versions of Van Morrison's "Come Here My Love," Talking Heads' "Drugs," Tim Buckley's "Morning Glory," and Gene Clark's "Strength of String," are solid enough to stand on their own while also charming fans of the originals. The mood throughout the album is deliciously spectral and mesmerizing, while the range of material covered, not to mention the group's rotating roster of performers, will reward careful listening.