Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd The Moon And The Melodies

• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – Sea, Swallow Me
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – Memory Gongs
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – Why Do You Love Me?
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – Eyes are Mosaics
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – She Will Destroy You
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – The Ghost Has No Home
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – Bloody and Blunt
• Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd – Ooze Out and Away, Onehow

• 1. Sea, Swallow Me
• 2. Memory Gongs
• 3. Why Do You Love Me?
• 4. Eyes are Mosaics
• 5. She Will Destroy You
• 6. The Ghost Has No Home
• 7. Bloody and Blunt
• 8. Ooze Out and Away, Onehow

The Moon and the Melodies is a singular record within the Cocteau Twins’ catalogue – unusually ethereal, even by their standards, and largely instrumental, guided by the free-form improvisations of Harold Budd, an ambient pioneer who had drifted into their orbit as if by divine intervention. Building on the atmospheric bliss of Victorialand, released earlier the same year, it signaled a possible future for the trio, yet it was a path they’d never take again.

Over the ensuing years, The Moon and the Melodies has attracted a passionate fan base. Its most atmospheric tracks routinely turn up in ambient DJ sets. ‘Sea, Swallow Me’ is one of the Cocteau Twins’ most streamed songs on Spotify, having found a new life on TikTok, where it serves as the soundtrack to innumerable expressions of hard-to-express melancholy.

For such a low-key affair, the album casts a long shadow – but Raymonde believes the record’s uniqueness stems directly from its humble, unpremeditated origins. “It captured a moment in time between friends that are enjoying making music together. Really, that’s the essence of it.”