Mark Gardener & Robin Guthrie To Release 'Universal Road' This Month

Mark Gardener, the frontman for the reunited influential British shoegaze band Ride, and Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie,will release their collaborative album 'Universal Road' this month.

Despite the album was recorded in France back in 2013, couldn't been released before because of a variety of other commitments and projects. The record will finally see the light on March 23 through Soleil Après Minuit.

If you pre-order your copy directly from robinguthrie.com , it will come with a free limited edition CD of the 2012 track 'The Places We Go', which is not included on the album.

Check out the tracklist and listen to the 2012 single "The Places We Go" below:

01. Universal Road

02. Dice

03. Amnesia

04. Old Friend

05. Yesterday’s News

06. Cry For Survival

07. Sometime

08. Triumphant

09. Reason

10. Blind

Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde Launches New Duo Snowbird, Announces Debut Album

Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde has launched a new project called Snowbird with singer-songwriter Stephanie Dosen.

The pair will release their forthcoming debut album titled 'Moon' in January on Raymonde's label Bella Union, with cover art by famed designer Vaughan Oliver, who has worked extensively with 4AD and Cocteau Twins. The record features guest appearances from Radiohead's Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway, Midlake's Eric Pulido and McKenzie Smith, alongside Lanterns on the Lake's Paul Gregory, and Jonathan Wilson.

In a press release, Raymonde said of the album contributors: "Having [the collaborators] add their magic to the record was a thrill, but really, I think this is very much Stephanie's record. She's a really special singer and I feel the simplicity of my music was the perfect backdrop for her stories and her incredible vocal arrangements." 

"Stephanie was the first singer I had worked with since Elizabeth [Fraser of Cocteau Twins] that I had a real musical empathy with. She could do anything. No one had ever sung with Midlake on record before Stephanie, while Massive Attack asked her to be their lead singer on tour—ironic really given that Elizabeth had too! She also sang with Chemical Brothers. But we'd never written music together at home." He added.

About the band he said: "It would be a little odd if it didn't remind people of Cocteau Twins."

On the album: "I wrote every piece of music at night, in semi-darkness so that the space didn't feel like my living room. The moon was very important for the light it reflected."

Raymonde has also unveiled "Porcelain" the lead cut from the album, which is light as a feather... Have a listen below.