This Mortal Coil

An impromptu home recording session on the Isle of Dogs in 1985 - engineered by DCD collaborator Robert Lee and involving his eight-track reel-to-reel tape machine, a handful of my percussion instruments, an ocarina (clay flute), and a tin bath, glass milk bottle and club hammer - produced a short track of tribal-style drumming. On account of its two distinct parts, I called it At First, And Then'. Robert mixed down a version onto a cassette tape which I sent to Ivo Watts Russell at 4AD simply to ask what he thought of it. His response, which caught me entirely off-guard, was to ask if he could include it on the second album of his project This Mortal Coil, subsequently released as the double album Filigree and Shadow. Brendan then suggested we could make an extended version for live performance, and it became DCD's set closer for a couple of tours. To say I was thrilled...!