“Simon Raymonde: Five Essential Albums”

• By Kara Manning
• WFUV.com
• Jan 2014

Since the dissolution of Cocteau Twins in 1997, Simon Raymonde has focused on running his Bella Union label, the UK home of eclectic bands and artists like John Grant, Beach House and Midlake.

Considering the many years that have passed since the end of Cocteau Twins it seemed unlikely that Raymonde would join another band, but around 2006 he began collaborating with Wisconsin singer Stephanie Dosen, a gifted young musician signed to his label. The dream pop duo eventually co-founded Snowbird in 2009 and will release their elegant debut, Moon, on January 28 in the States, a recording which also features members of Radiohead (Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway), Midlake (Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith) and Lanterns on the Lake (Paul Gregory, Oliver Ketteringham) and singer-songwriter Jonathan Wilson.

There’s a gentle, quirky kinship between Dosen, a knitwear maven, and Raymonde’s former Cocteau Twins bandmate Elizabeth Fraser; both share ethereal, mellifluous vocals and have worked with Massive Attack (Dosen was a touring lead singer with the band). Raymonde told Pitchfork last fall that Dosen was the first singer, since the crystalline-voiced Fraser, with whom he felt “a real musical empathy.”

FUV and The Alternate Side asked Simon Raymonde, a tireless champion of so many bands over his storied career as a musician, producer, radio presenter and label maestro, if he’d compile his Five Essential Albums for us.

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