• 1983–1991

  Ivo Watts-Russell

  John Fryer
• This Mortal Coil was a British music collective led by Ivo Watts Russell, founder of the influential record label 4AD. Watts Russell and engineer John Fryer were the only two constant members across the project's run. Their recorded output features a large, rotating cast of guest musicians drawn mostly from the 4AD roster, including members of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and Throwing Muses, the latter featuring Tanya Donelly, who later founded The Breeders and Belly.
• Watts Russell launched the label alongside Peter Kent in November 1979 under the name Axis Records. They renamed it 4AD, an abbreviation of forward, in early 1980 after discovering that another company was already using the Axis name.
• The name This Mortal Coil comes from a line in the song "Dream Within a Dream" by the American rock band Spirit: "Stepping off this mortal coil will be my pleasure."
  
  That line alludes to Shakespeare's Hamlet, where the phrase "when we have shuffled off this mortal coil" appears in the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy.
• This Mortal Coil was never intended as a standard band. It was conceived as a creative outlet, giving 4AD artists freedom outside their main projects while allowing them to record personal covers of favorite songs.
• The collective's debut single, "Song To The Siren," was a cover of Tim Buckley's ballad featuring Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. Originally intended only as the B-side to "Sixteen Days / Gathering Dust," it was promoted to the A-side before release and spent 101 weeks on the UK Independent Singles Chart, one of the longest runs of the decade.
• Across its run, This Mortal Coil released three full-length albums: It'll End in Tears (1984), Filigree & Shadow (1986), and Blood (1991).
• It'll End in Tears helped spark a resurgence of interest in Big Star, one of the great cult acts of the 1970s. This Mortal Coil covered two tracks from Big Star's 1978 album Third/Sister Lovers, "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust," exposing the music to a new generation of college radio listeners.
• This Mortal Coil's sound, often described as gothic dream pop or ethereal wave, was instrumental in defining the dream pop movement and cementing the signature aesthetic of 4AD.
• After This Mortal Coil concluded in 1991, Ivo Watts Russell formed a similar collaborative project called The Hope Blister, carrying forward the same rotating cast format.

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