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Look up Carolyn in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

See Carl (name) for more information about the name.

Carolyn is a female given name, a spelling variant of Caroline]. Another spelling is Karolyn. Caroline itself is one of the feminine forms of Charles.

People named Carolyn include:

• Carolyn Bennett (born 1950), Canadian politician
• Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (1966-1999), wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr.
• Carolyn Brown (choreographer) (born 1927), American dancer, choreographer, and writer, founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company
• Carolyn Cassady (born 1923), American writer associated with the Beat Generation
• Carolyn C. J. Cherryh, American science fiction and fantasy writer
• Carolyn Forché (born 1950), American poet, editor, translator and human rights advocate
• Carolyn Franklin (1944-1988), American singer and songwriter, sister of Aretha Franklin
• Carolyn Hart, American mystery writer
• Carolyn Hax (born 1966), American writer and advice columnist
• Carolyn Dawn Johnson (born 1971), Canadian country music singer-songwriter
• Carolyn Jones (1930-1983), American actress best known for playing Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family
• Carolyn Jones (politician), Canadian politician
• Carolyn Jones-Young (born 1969), American former basketball player
• Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (born 1945), American politician
• Carolyn Kizer (born 1925), Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet
• Carolyn Leigh (1926-1983), American lyricist best known for co-writing "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come"
• Carolyn B. Maloney (born 1946), American politician
• Carolyn Martin (born 1951), American academic, author and president of Amherst College
• Carolyn McCarthy (born 1944), American politician
• Carolyn McCormick (born 1959), American actress best known for her role as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet in the Law & Order franchise
• Carolyn Morris (1925-1996), pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
• Carolyn Omine, American television writer and producer
• Carolyn Parrish (born 1946), Canadian former politician
• Carolyn Porco (born 1953), American planetary scientist
• Carolyn See (born 1934), American author and reviewer
• Carolyn Seymour (born 1947), English actress
• Carolyn S. Shoemaker (born 1929), American astronomer
• Carolyn Watkinson (born 1949), English mezzo-soprano singer of baroque music
• Carolyn D. Wright (born 1949), American poet

Fictional Carolyns include:

• Carolyn Keene, pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew and The Dana Girls mystery stories
• Carolyn Barek, on the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent
• Carolyn Stoddard, from the soap opera Dark Shadows

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Carolyn"
• All pages beginning with "Karolyn"

This given name-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Carolyn Porco
Born	(1953-03-06) March 6, 1953 (age 59) New York City
Nationality	USA
Fields	Planetary science Imaging science
Institutions	University of Colorado at Boulder
Alma mater	California Institute of Technology Stony Brook University
Doctoral advisor	Peter Goldreich
Known for	Leader of Cassini Imaging Team; Discoveries about Saturn system ; Member of Voyager Imaging Team; Expert in Planetary rings and Enceladus; Science communicator & public speaker; Film consultant
Notable awards	Porco asteroid; Isaac Asimov Science Award (2008); Lennart Nilsson Award (2009); Huntington Science Writing Fellowship (2010); AAS Carl Sagan Medal (2010); Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award (2011)

Dr. Carolyn C. Porco (born March 6, 1953) is an American planetary scientist known for her work in the exploration of the outer solar system, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She leads the imaging science team on the Cassini mission^[1][2][3] currently in orbit around Saturn. She is also an imaging scientist on the New Horizons^[4] mission launched to Pluto on January 19, 2006. She is an expert on planetary rings and the Saturnian moon, Enceladus.

She has co-authored over 100 scientific papers on subjects ranging from the spectroscopy of Uranus and Neptune, the interstellar medium, the photometry of planetary rings, satellite/ring interactions, computer simulations of planetary rings, the thermal balance of Triton’s polar caps, heat flow in the interior of Jupiter, and a suite of results on the atmosphere, satellites, and rings of Saturn from the Cassini imaging experiment.^[5]

Porco was responsible for the epitaph and proposal to honor the late renowned planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker by sending his cremains to the Moon aboard the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1998.^[6][7]

A frequent public speaker, Porco has given two popular lectures at TED^[8][9] as well as the opening speech^[10] for Pangea Day, a May 2008 global broadcast coordinated from six cities around the world, in which she described the cosmic context for human existence. Porco has also won a number of awards and honors for her contributions to science and the public sphere; for instance, in 2008 she was named by Wired magazine as one of '15 People the Next President Should Listen To.'^[11] In 2009, New Statesman named her as one of 'The 50 People Who Matter Today.'^[12] And in 2010 she was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal, presented by the American Astronomical Society for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public.^[13]

Education[link]

Porco was born in New York City. She graduated in 1970 from Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, in New York City. She earned a BS degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974. She received her PhD in 1983 from the California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Supervised by dynamicist Peter Goldreich, she wrote her doctoral dissertation focused on Voyager discoveries in the rings of Saturn.

Career[link]

Voyager[link]

In the fall of 1983, Dr. Porco joined the faculty of the Department of Planetary Sciences within the University of Arizona; the same year she was made a member of the Voyager Imaging Team. In the latter capacity, she was an active participant in the Voyager encounters with Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989, leading the Rings Working Group within the Voyager Imaging Team during the Neptune encounter.

As a young Voyager scientist, she was the first person to describe the behavior of the eccentric ringlets and the "spokes" discovered by Voyager within the rings of Saturn; to elucidate the mechanism by which the outer Uranian rings were being shepherded by the Voyager-discovered moons Cordelia and Ophelia; and to provide an explanation for the shepherding of the rings arcs of Neptune by the moon Galatea, also discovered by Voyager. She was a co-originator of the idea to take a 'portrait of the planets' with the Voyager spacecraft, and participated in the planning, design, and execution of those images in 1990, including the famous Pale Blue Dot image of Earth.^[14]

Cassini–Huygens[link]

In November 1990, Dr. Porco was selected as the leader of the Imaging Team for the Cassini–Huygens mission^[1][2][3] an international mission that successfully placed a spacecraft in orbit around Saturn and deployed the atmospheric Huygens probe to Saturn's largest satellite, Titan. She is also the Director of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS (CICLOPS), which is the center of uplink and downlink operations for the Cassini imaging science experiment and the place where Cassini images are processed for release to the public.^[15] CICLOPS is part of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

In the course of the ongoing mission, Porco and her team have discovered seven moons of Saturn: Methone and Pallene,^[16][17] Polydeuces,^[18][19] Daphnis,^[20] Anthe,^[21] Aegaeon,^[22] and a small moonlet in the outer B ring.^[23]

They also found several new rings, such as rings coincident with the orbits of Atlas, Janus and Epimetheus (the Saturnian 'co-orbitals') and Pallene; a diffuse ring between Atlas and the F ring; and new rings within several of the gaps in Saturn's rings.^[24]

Porco's team was responsible for the first sighting of a hydrocarbon lake, as well as a lake district, in the south polar region of Titan in June 2005.^[25] (A group of similar – and larger – features were sighted in the north polar region in February 2007.)^[26] The possibility that these sea-sized features are either completely or partially filled with liquid hydrocarbons is significantly strengthened by subsequent observations by other Cassini instruments.^[27]

Her team was also responsible for the first sighting of plumes erupting from Enceladus, Saturn's sixth largest moon. They first suggested, and provided detailed scientific arguments, that these jets might be geysers erupting from reservoirs of near-surface liquid water under the south pole of the small moon.^[28]

New Horizons[link]

Porco is a member of the imaging team for the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The probe is scheduled for a Pluto flyby in 2015.

University positions[link]

Porco served in the faculty of the University of Arizona from 1983 to 2001, achieving tenured professorship in 1991. She taught both graduates and undergraduates and was one of five finalists for the University of Arizona Honors Center Five Star Faculty Award, a campus-wide student-nominated, student-judged award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.

Porco is a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and she is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

NASA advisor[link]

Porco has been an active participant in guiding the American planetary exploration program through membership on many important NASA advisory committees, including the Solar System Exploration Subcommittee, the Mars Observer Recovery Study Team, and the Solar System Road Map Development Team. In the mid-1990s, she served as the chairperson for a small NASA advisory working group to study and develop future outer solar system missions and she served as the Vice Chairperson of the Steering Group for the first Solar System Decadal Survey, sponsored by NASA and the National Academy of Sciences.

Public speaking[link]

Porco speaks frequently on the Cassini mission and planetary exploration in general, and has appeared at renowned conferences such as Pop!Tech (2005, 2006)^[29] and TED (2007, 2009).^[30][31] She attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief symposium on November 2006.^[32][33]

Porco's 2007 TED talk, "The Human Journey," detailed two major areas of discovery made by the Cassini mission: the exploration of the Saturnian moons Titan and Enceladus. In her introductory remarks, Porco explained:

So the journey back to Saturn is really part of, and is also a metaphor for, a much larger human voyage.

In describing the environment of Titan, with its molecular nitrogen atmosphere suffused with organic compounds, Porco invited her audience to imagine the scene on the moon's surface:

Stop and think for a minute. Try to imagine what the surface of Titan might look like. It's dark: high noon on Titan is as dark as deep Earth twilight on the Earth. It's cold, it's eerie, it's misty, it might be raining, and you are standing on the shores of Lake Michigan brimming with paint thinner. That is the view that we had of the surface of Titan before we got there with Cassini. And I can tell you that what we have found on Titan, though not the same in detail, is every bit as fascinating as that story is, and for us, for Cassini people, it has been like a Jules Verne adventure come true.

After describing various features discovered on Titan by Cassini, and presenting the historic first photograph of Titan's surface by the Huygens lander, Porco went on to describe Enceladus and the jets of "fine icy particles" which erupt from the moon's southern pole:

...we have arrived at the conclusion that these jets may, they may, be erupting from pockets of liquid water near, under the surface of Enceladus. So we have, possibly, liquid water, organic materials and excess heat. In other words we have possibly stumbled upon the holy grail of modern-day planetary exploration, or in other words an environment that is potentially suitable for living organisms. And I don't think I need to tell you that the discovery of life elsewhere in our Solar system, whether it be on Enceladus or elsewhere, would have enormous cultural and scientific implications. Because if we could demonstrate that genesis had occurred – not once but twice, independently, in our Solar system – then that means by inference it has occurred a staggering number of times throughout our Universe in its 13.7 billion year history.

Porco's 2009 TED Talk was "Could a Saturn moon harbor life?".^[34]

Television and film[link]

Porco has been a regular CNN guest analyst and consultant on astronomy, has made many radio and television appearances explaining science to the lay audience, including appearances on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, CBS's 60 Minutes, Peter Jennings's The Century, and TV documentaries on planetary exploration such as The Planets on the Discovery Channel and the BBC, A Traveler's Guide to the Planets on the National Geographic Channel, Horizon on the BBC, and a Nova Cassini special on PBS. For the 2003 A&E special on the Voyager mission entitled Cosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message, Porco appeared onscreen and also served as the show's science advisor and animation director.

Porco served as an adviser for the 1997 film Contact, which was based on a novel by the well-known astronomer Carl Sagan. The actress Jodie Foster portrayed the heroine in the movie, and Sagan reportedly suggested that she use Porco as a real-life model to guide her performance.^[35]

Porco was also an adviser on the 2009 film Star Trek.^[36] The scene in which the Enterprise comes out of warp drive into the atmosphere of Titan, and rises submarine-style out of the haze, with Saturn and the rings in the background, was Porco's suggestion.^[37][38]

Interviews and articles[link]

Porco has given numerous interviews in print media on subjects ranging from planetary exploration to the conflict between science and religion (for example, Newsweek^[39][40] and the journal The Humanist^[41]).

She has been profiled many times in print, beginning in the Boston Globe (October 1989),^[42] the New York Times (August 1999, September 2009),^[43][44] the Tucson Citizen (2001),^[45] Newsday (June 2004)^{[citation needed]}, for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (2006),^[46] in Astronomy Now (2006),^[47] in Discover Magazine (2007),^[48] and also online on CNN.com (2005)^[49] and Edge.org.^[50]

Prior to Cassini’s launch, she was a strong and visible defendant of the usage of radioactive materials on the Cassini spacecraft.^[51] She is a supporter of a plan for human spaceflight toward the Moon and Mars, and in an op-ed piece published in The New York Times,^[52] she highlighted the benefits of a deep-space-capable heavy launch vehicle for the robotic exploration of the solar system.

Other[link]

In 1994, Porco was a member of a committee (chaired by Carl Sagan) entitled Public Communication of NASA's Science, and in 1999, she reviewed a biography of Sagan for The Guardian.^[53] Her popular science articles have been published in The Sunday Times, Astronomy, the Arizona Daily Star, Sky & Telescope, American Scientist, and Scientific American. She is active in the presentation of science to the public as the leader of the Cassini Imaging Team, as the creator/editor of the website where Cassini images are posted. She writes the site's homepage "Captain's Log" greeting to the public.^[15]

She is also the CEO of Diamond Sky Productions, a small company devoted to the scientific, as well as artful, use of planetary images and computer graphics for the presentation of science to the public.

Awards and honors[link]

In 1999, Porco was selected by The Sunday Times (London) as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century,^[54] and by Industrial Week as one of 50 Stars to Watch.^[55] In 2008 she was chosen to be on Wired magazine's inaugural 'Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.'^[11]

Her contributions to the exploration of the outer solar system were recognized with the naming of Asteroid (7231) Porco which is "Named in honor of Carolyn C. Porco, a pioneer in the study of planetary ring systems...and a leader in spacecraft exploration of the outer solar system."^[56]

In 2008, Porco was awarded the Isaac Asimov Science Award by the American Humanist Association.^[57]

In September 2009, Porco was awarded The Huntington Library's Science Writer Fellowship for 2010.^[58] That same month, New Statesman named her as one of 'The 50 People Who Matter Today.'^[12]

In October 2009, she and Babak Amin Tafreshi were each awarded the 2009 Lennart Nilsson Award in recognition of their photographic work. The award panel's citation for Dr. Porco reads as follows:

"Carolyn Porco combines the finest techniques of planetary exploration and scientific research with aesthetic finesse and educational talent. While her images, which depict the heavenly bodies of the Saturn system with unique precision, serve as tools for the world's leading experts, they also reveal the beauty of the universe in a manner that is an inspiration to one and all."^[59]

In October 2010, Porco was awarded the 2010 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public, presented by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.^[13]

In May 2009, Porco received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook,^[60] of which she is an alumna. And in 2011 she won the Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology, the highest honor regularly bestowed by Caltech.^[61]

Musical interests[link]

Carolyn (at right) re-enacting the famous Beatles photograph at Abbey Road with the other members of the Cassini Imaging Team.

Porco is fascinated by the 1960s and The Beatles and has, at times, incorporated references to The Beatles and their music into her presentations, writings, and press releases. The first color image released by Cassini to the public was an image of Jupiter, taken during Cassini’s approach to the giant planet and released on October 9, 2000 to honor John Lennon’s 60th birthday.^[62] In 2006, she produced and directed a brief 8-minute movie of 64 of Cassini’s most spectacular images,^[63] put to the music of the Beatles, in honor of Paul McCartney’s 64th birthday. And in 2007, she produced a poster showing 64 scenes from Saturn, which she sent to McCartney.^[64][65]

Porco is also interested in dance and fascinated with Michael Jackson. In August 2010, she won a Michael Jackson costume/dance contest held in Boulder, Colorado.^[66]

Quotes of Porco's were used in the production of "The Poetry of Reality (An Anthem for Science)", "A Wave of Reason", "Children of Africa (The Story of Us)", and "Onward to the Edge!" by Symphony of Science.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carolyn Porco

• Pangea Day opening speech by Carolyn Porco
• 2007 TED talk by Carolyn Porco on "The Human Journey"
• 2009 TED talk by Carolyn Porco on "Could a Saturn moon harbor life?"
• Podcast on the Cassini mission by Carolyn Porco

v t e Voyager program Concepts Gravity assist Radioisotope thermoelectric generator Specific orbital energy of Voyager 1 Voyager 1 Work Pale Blue Dot Family Portrait (Voyager) Voyager Golden Record Contents of the Voyager Golden Record Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos Voyager 2 Work Voyager Golden Record Contents of the Voyager Golden Record Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos Voyager team Stamatios Krimigis Carolyn Porco Raymond Heacock Jim Blinn Edward C. Stone Timothy Ferris Observations Enceladus (moon) Masubi (volcano) Exploration of Jupiter Exploration of Saturn Exploration of Uranus Prometheus (volcano) Exploration of Io Rings of Neptune Dunyazad (crater) Surt (volcano) Shahrazad (crater) Pele (volcano)

Carolyn Wonderland
Carolyn Wonderland performing at Antone's in Austin, Texas (2006).
Background information
Born	(1972-11-09) November 9, 1972 (age 39) Houston, Texas, United States
Genres	Blues
Occupations	Singer-songwriter Guitarist
Instruments	Guitar Vocals
Years active	1990s–present
Website	Official website

Carolyn Wonderland (born Carolyn Bradford^[1] 1972, Houston, Texas) is an American blues singer, songwriter and musician. She is married to A. Whitney Brown.

Biography[link]

Wonderland dropped out of Houston's Langham Creek High School to pursue her music ambitions.^[2] In 1999 Wonderland moved to Austin, Texas, but, by 2001, she lost her apartment lease after her landlord became ill and decided to live out of her van as she was spending more than 300 days a year on the road performing.^[2]

Wonderland's instrumental abilities include guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, trumpet and piano. Although primarily a blues artist, Wonderland likes to incorporate elements of country, swing, zydeco, surf, gospel, soul, and cumbia into her musical mix. She usually performs with Cole El-Saleh on keyboards and Robert Michael Hooper on drums.

In February 2008, Wonderland released the CD, "Miss Understood" on the Bismeaux Productions label^[3] and the title song has been on the Top 50 of the 'Roots Music Report' chart since the album's release.^[4] Fans of Wonderland's music include Bob Dylan,^[5] and Ray Benson, founder of Asleep at the Wheel. Benson produced Miss Understood, and has been one of her songwriting collaborators. Wonderland credits several blues and Texas musicians as influences on her music. One notable influence is Austin singer/songwriter Terri Hendrix, as Wonderland covered two Hendrix songs, ("I Found the Lions" and "Throw My Love"), on Miss Understood.

Wonderland has been involved in a number of recordings, including several that were self-produced on independent labels. She was the lead singer fronting the band Imperial Monkeys. Wonderland released Bloodless Revolution in 2008, and is the primary singer on the Jerry Lightfoot's Band of Wonder Texistentialism CD with Lightfoot and Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead, Tubes.)^[6] Wonderland was a founding member of the Loose Affiliation of Saints and Sinners (with Papa Mali, Eldridge Goins, Guy Forsyth, and others), with several of her songs being featured on their Sessions from the Hotel San Jose Rm. 50 CD.^[6] She was also the lead guitarist in the all-girl, southern rock band Sis DeVille (other members include Shelley King, Sarah Brown, Lisa Pankratz and Floramay Holliday), and a founding member of the Austin Volunteer Orchestra.^[6]

Carolyn Wonderland jamming at Antone's in Austin (2008).

Wonderland appeared on Austin City Limits in 2008,^[7] and has had her music used on NBC's Homicide and Fox's Time of Your Life. She was a headlining artist at the annual Rochester International Jazz Festival summer 2009 at the Eastman Theatre and New York. In 2003, Wonderland opened the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, after performing there for the previous ten years, singing the National Anthem with 'The Imperial Monkeys'.^[8]

Wonderland also performs with the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, raising money for local Austin charities, food banks, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and on behalf of the legalization of marijuana.^[6]

Wonderland married writer-comedian A. Whitney Brown on March 4, 2011, in a ceremony officiated by Michael Nesmith.^[1]

Recognition[link]

Wonderland has won the following awards:^[9]

• Best Female Vocalist - 2012 Austin Music Awards
• Best Female Vocalist - 2009 Austin Music Awards
• Best Blues Band - 2009 Austin Music Awards
• Best Female Vocalist - 2000 Houston Press Music Awards
• Gold Award - Flagstaff International Film Festival - Music Video Awards - Alan Ames &Assoc. "Party on Houston" featured artist 'Carolyn Wonderland'
• Best Blues Songwriter of the Year - 1999 Houston Press Music Awards
• Local Musician of the Year & song of the Year ("Blue Lights") - 1998 Houston Press Music Awards
• Best Rock/Pop Album of the Year ("Bursting With Flavor ") and Local Musician of the Year and Best Female Vocalist - 1997 Houston Press Music Awards
• Best Blues Band - 1996 Public News Music Awards

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Collaborations[link]

• Fireside Songs For the Soul (2010) (licensed by Bismeaux)with Carolyn Wonderland & Guy Forsyth
• Sessions From the Hotel San Jose, Rm. 50 (2002) (mix-o-rama) with A Loose Affiliation of Saints and Sinners
• Texistentialism (2001) Noah's Sky Music (indie) with Jerry Lightfoot's Band of Wonder, Vince Welnick
• Drink the Rain (2001) (indie) with Rebecca Cole

See also[link]

• Music of Austin

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Carolyn Wonderland self-produced video about her instruments

Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation^[2] and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals. The original members were Elizabeth Fraser (vocals), Robin Guthrie (guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass guitar), who was replaced by Simon Raymonde (also bass guitar) early in the band's career.

While the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."^[3]

History[link]

Formative years: 1979-1983[link]

Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie (bass guitar), both from Grangemouth, Scotland, formed the band in 1979. At a local disco, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who would eventually provide vocals.^[4] The band's influences at the time included Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols, Kate Bush, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band was named after the song "The Cocteau Twins" by fellow Scotsmen 'Johnny and the Self-Abusers' (who later renamed themselves Simple Minds; the song "The Cocteau Twins" was also re-penned as "No Cure"). Their debut recording, Garlands (released by 4AD Records in 1982), was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP. Around that time, NME's Don Watson compared the style of the band to goth bands like Gene Loves Jezebel and Xmal Deutschland.^[5]

	"The Spangle Maker" noicon Sample of "The Spangle Maker", (1984).
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig.^[4] He subsequently joined Lowlife. The band's sound on its first three recordings relied on the combination of Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalist guitar, and Fraser's voice; the Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head over Heels, relied solely on the latter two.^[4] This led to the growth of the band's characteristic sound: Fraser's voice, by turns ethereal and earthy, combined with Guthrie's effects-heavy guitars. Guthrie has often said that he is far more interested in the way the guitar is recorded, than in the actual notes being played, though he later admitted the effects and layering were due to his own technical limitations.^[6]

In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project (this spawned a cover version of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" performed by Guthrie and Fraser), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as bass player.^[4]

Rise to fame: 1984-1989[link]

With Raymonde, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs that explored their new style. These included The Spangle Maker (1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea (1985), Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay (1985), and Love's Easy Tears (1986). Raymonde, who was called in to work on the second album by This Mortal Coil, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand (1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Raymonde returned to the group for The Moon and the Melodies (1986), a collaboration with ambient composer Harold Budd,^[4] which was not released under the Cocteau Twins name.

In 1985, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of the Cocteau Twins' releases in the US and other territories. To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque (1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back catalogue.

While remaining a 4AD band internationally, the Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll, in October of that year.

Mainstream success: 1990-1994[link]

The group released Heaven or Las Vegas in late 1990. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the higher reaches of the UK charts immediately after its release.^[7] Despite the success of the record and the subsequent concert tours, not everything was well with the band. They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas partly because of conflicts with the label's founder Ivo Watts-Russell, and were close to breaking up over internal problems due in large part to Guthrie's addiction to drugs and alcohol.^[8]

While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Mercury Records subsidiary Fontana for the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their US relationship with Capitol. In 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1990, and also included a bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material.

The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café, was released in late 1993. The band explained that Four-Calendar Café was a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser undergoing psychotherapy. The two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989.

Latest releases and break-up: 1995-1997[link]

1995 saw the release of two new EPs: Twinlights and Otherness. Some of the tracks on Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses (1996).^[4] The record saw the return of more heavily layered guitars, and Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely. Two singles were taken from the album: Tishbite and Violaine; both exist in two CD versions, with different b-sides included on each. The band, augmented by an extra guitarist and a drummer, toured extensively to support the album, their last for Mercury/Fontana. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch", which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, became the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. It was also one of the two songs written and arranged by Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde for Chinese pop singer Faye Wong for her Mandarin album Fu Zao released in June 1996, the other being "Tranquil Eye" from Violaine released in October 1996.

In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth LP, the trio disbanded over irreconcilable differences in part related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that they will likely never be finished or released in any form. In the same year Guthrie and Raymonde wrote and performed a new song in Faye Wong's eponymous album.

Post-breakup[link]

In 1999, Bella Union, the record label founded by Guthrie and Raymonde, released a double-CD Cocteau Twins compilation entitled BBC Sessions. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with rare and unreleased material included. In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs picked by the band members that had been released during their years with 4AD; all recordings had been digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with the release of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs.

On 31 January 2005, the Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 30 April 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates would be added. On 16 March the reunion was cancelled.

In 2005, 4AD released a worldwide limited edition of 10,000 compilation box set titled, Lullabies to Violaine, a 4-disc set that details every single and EP released from 1982-1996. This was shortly followed up by two 2-disc sets of the same names, known as Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Since March 2007, the band has started podcasts of exclusive material.^[9] On 6 October 2008 the Cocteau Twins accepted the Q Awards Inspiration Award.^[10]

In 2009, the Cocteau Twins' song "Alice" was used in Peter Jackson's film The Lovely Bones.^[11]

Solo work[link]

The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. In addition to forming Bella Union, Guthrie and Raymonde have produced releases from new bands signed to that label.

Simon Raymonde released the solo album Blame Someone Else as the first release on Bella Union. He also co-produced the posthumous album by Billy Mackenzie from the Associates, then went on to produce several Domino Records artists like James Yorkston, Archie Bronson Outfit (whom he later managed) and Clearlake. More recently he has produced the UK band The Duke Spirit, London-based duo Helene, former Golden Virgins frontman Lucas Renney and has mixed the Mercury Prize nominated album The End Of History by Fionn Regan. In his role running Bella Union and signing bands to the label, he has discovered such artists as Laura Veirs, Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Lift to Experience, The Low Anthem I Break Horses The Czars John Grant and the label is renowned for its long-term relationships with its artists, like Beach House who have released all four of their albums with Bella Union, as have Dirty Three, Midlake etc. He has recently picked up Independent Label of The Year award at the Music Week Awards in both 2010 and 2012.

Robin Guthrie has released three solo albums - Imperial, Continental, and Carousel - and four EPs. He toured extensively with his band Violet Indiana, which included ex-Cocteau's guitarist Mitsuo Tate in the line-up. He has also scored the music for two movies — American indie film Mysterious Skin (in collaboration with Harold Budd) and Mexican/Spanish movie 3:19. He also reunited with Budd to collaborate on two companion CDs: Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls. In 2006, Guthrie produced three songs on Mahogany's "Connectivity," on which Lucy Bell Guthrie made her singing debut. He most recently produced and played guitar on Apollo Heights debut album, White Music For Black People

Elizabeth Fraser provided guest vocals on Future Sound of London's single "Lifeforms" (1993), vocals for three songs on Massive Attack's Mezzanine in 1998 (as well as touring with them several times), and for other musical projects and groups. It has been speculated that she has been working on a solo album, though details of this are as yet unavailable.^[12] Fraser provided the vocals for "Lament for Gandalf" in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In 2000 she sang with Peter Gabriel on Ovo : The Millennium Show. In 2005, she worked with Breton musician Yann Tiersen on two songs for his album Les retrouvailles.

In May 2012, Antony Hegarty announced that Elizabeth Fraser would play two live dates in August as part of the Meltdown Festival at London's Southbank Centre. ^[13]

Former members[link]

• Elizabeth Fraser - vocals (1979-1997)
• Robin Guthrie - guitars, bass, drum machine (1979-1997)
• Will Heggie - bass (1979-1983)
• Simon Raymonde - bass (1983-1986, 1986-1997)

Discography[link]

• Garlands (1982)
• Head over Heels (1983)
• Treasure (1984)
• Victorialand (1986)
• The Moon and the Melodies (1986), (in collaboration with Harold Budd)
• Blue Bell Knoll (1988)
• Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)
• Four-Calendar Café (1993)
• Milk and Kisses (1996)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Cocteau Twins on 4AD website
• Strangeways Radio Station where Simon Raymonde broadcasts Beneath The Surface
• [1] Official website for Elizabeth Fraser