¶ Elizabeth Fraser ¶

                   ¶ Elizabeth Fraser ¶
Location: Bristol, England
Birth name: Elizabeth Davidson Fraser
Born: 29 August 1963, Grangemouth, Scotland
Genres: Gothic rock, Ambient, Dreampop, Ethereal wave
¶ One of music’s seminal vocalists, Elizabeth Fraser is returning to the stage to play her first full shows since 1998. The former Cocteau Twins singer has chosen Bath Pavilion as the venue to debut new material, as well as performing re-interpretations of Cocteau Twins songs. The show is an intimate warm up for her two sold out nights at London’s Royal Festival Hall in August.
¶ After the breakup of Cocteau Twins in 1998, Fraser continued to collaborate with a range of performers, including The Future Sound of London, Craig Armstrong, Massive Attack (who she performed the classic song “Teardop” with and toured extensively with the band in 2006), and Peter Gabriel’s millennium project OVO. She has subsequently contributed to the soundtracks of several films, including In Dreams, Cruel Intentions, The Winter Guest and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
¶ In May Elizabeth confirmed two dates as part of the Meltdown Festival 2012 at London’s Royal Festival Hall in August, curated by Antony Hegarty. She confirmed that she has assembled an album's worth of material and will showcase these at the event in addition to performing re-interpretations of some of the Cocteau Twins songs. Fraser also referred to the physical exertion involved in her singing against the wall of sound in many of the Cocteau Twins songs, of which she said it was "like an endurance test. I don't intend to do that again. I've been using my voice more gently." Antony Hegarty referred to Fraser agreeing to perform as "unprecedented" and said further "that's going to be probably one of the centerpieces of the festival, Liz Fraser doing two nights. It's a really, really big deal." Hegarty also described Fraser as one of the artists who "have used their platforms as cultural producers to challenge us . . . “
Website: http://elizabethfraser.com/
S laskavým svolením od Elizabeth Fraser: © 2012 Elizabeth Fraser.
Fraser and Cocteau Twins (excerpt):
¶ “At Last I Am Free”- Elizabeth Fraser   4:25 (From the album "Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before - Rough Trade 25" / P - 2003; Free download.)

¶ Fraser was the vocalist and lyricist in Cocteau Twins, a group founded in 1981 by Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie. At the time, she was 17 years old, and had never thought of herself as a singer. Guthrie and Heggie noticed her dancing at a club one night, and asked her to join their band. After an on-off phase, the band recorded some tracks which were sent as demos to John Peel and Ivo Watts-Russell of 4AD which led to their being signed by the London-based label and a successful career in music. Fraser and Guthrie formed a relationship, and had a daughter, Lucy Belle, in 1989. Guthrie liberally used drugs and alcohol throughout the years they were together, and Fraser suffered a nervous breakdown during the recording of Four-Calendar Café. The couple broke up in 1992, still opting to continue a musical relationship until 1998, when Cocteau Twins were disbanded.
Website:
¶ The official website Elizabethfraser.com was initially created by a fan, but was taken over by Fraser's management company on 22 March 2007. As of 30 November 2009, the new site content is updated with news on the release for the new single "Moses".
Personal life:
¶ Elizabeth Fraser was born in Grangemouth. She lives with her partner, musician Damon Reece (from the band Lupine Howl), in Bristol. She has two daughters, Lucy Belle Guthrie, her daughter by Robin Guthrie, and Lily, her daughter by Damon Reece.
Discography:
Main Artist:
¶ Garlands (1982)
¶ Head over Heels (1983)
¶ Treasure (1984)
¶ Victorialand (1986)
¶ Blue Bell Knoll (1988)
¶ Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)
¶ Four-Calendar Café (1993)
¶ Milk and Kisses (1996)
Guest appearances:
¶ Yann Tiersen, Massive Attack, Howard Shore, Peter Gabriel, Elliot Goldenthal, Simon Raymonde, Michael Kamen, Craig Armstrong, The Bathers, Moose, The Future Sound of London, Medicine, Ian McCulloch, Dif Juz, Felt, The Wolfgang Press. English as a Second Language: A Salute to the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser
by Tim Anderson
NEW YORK
27 January 2012
¶ The late eighties were a great time to be a fanboy of weirdo new wave ladysingers from outer space (mainly Britain). It seemed like every time you turned on your new favorite show, 120 Minutes, some wackadoodle dame dripping with otherworldly moxie was popping up sporting a leotard or a tutu or a completely bald head, leaving your mouth gaping in wonder at the sheer brilliance of it all. You had your helium-voiced ethereal fantasist (Kate Bush), your ferocious and feline Weimar Republic throwback/riding crop enthusiast (Siouxsie Sioux), your tiny elfin powder keg (Bjork of the Sugarcubes), your scary trannie android (Annie Lennox of Eurythmics), and your testy and tempestuous ingénue (Sinead O’Connor). All of these ladies had allure to burn and the musical chops to back it all up.
¶ But there was one lady, from a very distant star (Grangemouth, Scotland), who truly stood head and shoulders above the rest in what she brought to the table. Not only was Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins an alabaster-skinned ice princess with a mystifying hairstyle — she also had one of the most gorgeous voices to which pop music had ever born witness. With a staggering range that took it from the gutter to the stars in effortless swoops, and an easy way with melody and multi-tracked harmonies, Fraser’s voice was downright operatic in the sense that, unlike all of her peers, she sounded as if she could actually acquit herself quite nicely in an actual opera. (Of course, it would be one performed by an orchestra of hologram robots and staged on the distant planet of Mongo, but it would still be an opera.)
¶ The first glimpse I got of Elizabeth Fraser was in 1988, when the video for “Carolyn’s Fingers,” a single from Blue Bell Knoll, the Cocteau Twins’ fifth album — and the first to get major label distribution in the U.S. — was in regular rotation on MTV’s “alternative” shows, such as the aforementioned 120 Minutes and its daytime counterpart PostModern MTV. She was exquisitely weird-looking — her short mess of kinky hair was tamed with Dep (or whatever) and styled (sort of) atop her head like a lopsided valentine, and she stood against a spectral blue background dressed in an all-white ensemble so un-rock-‘n-roll that Ms. Fraser wouldn’t have looked out of place if she’d worn it to an after-service luncheon down at the Presbyterian church. Her bandmates, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Simon Raymonde, were also alluringly pale and otherworldly, but this was Elizabeth’s show.
More on: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/tanderson/2012/01/english-as-a-second-language-a-salute-to-the-cocteau-twins-elizabeth-fraser/

¶ Elizabeth Fraser ¶

 

---

 

NEWS

archiv

ALBUM COVERS X.