"CINDYTALK", Trinity No. 2 (Winter), 1998
Stanislas Chapel
translated by Sandra

By opening our pages to CINDYTALK we violate this column's rule -- writing of a group who, by recent news, still exists, even though the infrequency of its productions regularly sows worry among its fans.

Those who have not felt their skin tingle from Gordon Sharp's tearing vocals cannot understand the tone of this retrospective. In effect, CINDYTALK culminates, after almost fifteen years, in the "coming to life" of emotions: of suffering, of love and of rage.

Personalized by implacable sincerity, will, and violence, Gordon Sharp carries the project with the strength of his heart and his soul, surrounded since the beginning by friends who come and go on the whim of each recording. From the first album "CAMOUFLAGE HEART", in 1982 (for the title Everybody is Christ), to the most recent release "WAPPINSCHAW" at the end of 1994, twelve years have passed and CINDYTALK has released only four albums. This staggering and unbearable production time is the result of perfectionism and quality; not a detail ever lessens the force of the subject, the deepness of the wounds, or the truth in the silences. The music itself appears both ripened and spontaneously expressive; the ephermerality of an album seeming to represent moments from beyond time, to those in which things become one with time -- a searing fusion between music and soul.

-For those who came and will come closer.-

Recorded from 1982 to 1984, "CAMOUFLAGE HEART" remains the most abrasive album, in terms of musical form, among CINDYTALK's productions. Its pieces chained together are cold, lashing, spasmodic, and chipped; torn by the androgynous, caressing, and scarring voice of Gordon Sharp. From its surface to its farthest depths, this album is suffering made music; it is of an impenetrable darkness. Catharsis for the group as well as for the listener, this album bares and cleanses the spirit, so the heart beats in unison with the music.

At the same time, Gordon forged a friendship with the COCTEAU TWINS and together they recorded a John Peel session in January, 1983 -- the result, magnificent: the phantom voice of Gordon tangled with Liz Fraser's siren vocals. Prolonging this experience, Gordon also collaborated on the first THIS MORTAL COIL maxi, on which he accompanies Liz on a MODERN ENGLISH cover (Sixteen days/Gathering dust). Ivo Watts-Russell, the 4AD head, then invited him to participate in the first album released by THIS MORTAL COIL ("IT'LL END IN TEARS") on which he covers ALEX CHILTON (Kangaroo), REMA-REMA (Fond Affections), and vocalizes A Single Wish, the album's misty epilogue. Confronted with outside demands, Gordon's vocal approach was forcibly changed in order to sing the words of others; the exercise, however, cost him enormously. Without making any concession towards himself, collaborating with THIS MORTAL COIL was an ordeal. Gordon confided in one of his colleagues: "It was a terrifying experience, going to the studio, using my voice like a technical instrument and not experiencing the song, especially not Kangaroo. I was horrified because it was a lie and that lie traumatized me..."

As an epitaph, a dedication to Liz Fraser on "CAMOUFLAGE HEART" closes the period of collaborations: "Elizabeth... is there room in the rosary for three", the rosary being that of the Cocteau Twins song Garlands, where we die without end. As an echo to this amorous message, Liz offered Gordon a title on "TREASURE": Pandora (for Cindy).

-In my sleep I'm still falling...-

After almost four years, at the end of 1987, "IN THIS WORLD" appeared. Initially this project was divided into two sections: the first prolonging the experiences of the first album, while the second was composed of slow, mostly instrumental songs, haunted by nostalgia, oppression, and love. These two albums create a diptych, reflecting the opposing tensions within an individual. Musically, the violence of the first part succeeds in transcending the darkness of "CAMOUFLAGE HEART", offering vibrant colours that slice through the wall of sound. This subtle mixture brings a new fullness to the work of CINDYTALK, giving it a taste of luminous lyricism, unmaking a few filaments of the nihilistic web presented up to now. The voice, dressed in a multitude of facets yet unknown, sends shivers down the listener's spine. The second disc is the prelude to a new musical direction where piano and diverse sounds dominate. Guitars, drums, and drums machines are put aside, while the voice equally absents itself. Beyond the surprise, listening provokes a wonderment that cannot be described by words: rushing emotions and dampened melancholy. Bewitched and unsettled, the voice returns to envelop us like a ghost, to fascinate us to the point of tears.

In the same period, Gordon Sharp envisioned working with Jarobe (the vocalist from SWANS and from SKIN), though the collaboration never materialized...

-A sparrow dances piercing notes in our sky.-

Recorded in 1989 and released in 1990, the album "THE WIND IS STRONG..." is a "CINDYTALK diversion", according to the group -- a soundtrack for an experimental film entitled "ECLIPSE". With this album, the group created a sound similar to the second part of "IN THIS WORLD": arid and minimal, with piano and atmospheric sounds painting a soundscape in the image of the sleeve: a sepia forest both sombre and torn by a wintry light. Brought under the sylvester arch, surrounded by murmurs, the spirit sways between introspection, enchantment, meditation, and idle fancies. Long awaited and glimpsed behind every note of the piano, the voice of Gordon Sharp remains invisible, veiled in an uneasy silence.

Shortly after, Ivo (4AD) invited Gordon Sharp to participate in the construction of the third opus of THIS MORTAL COIL, but dissension in the subject of music (for Gordon) and of vocal interpretation (for Ivo) lead to the abandoning of the project: a cover of Help Me Lift You Up by Mary Margaret O'Hara. This piece was finally interpreted by Caroline Crawley (SHELLEY AN ORPHAN) and Deirdre Rutkowski.

-Song of changes.-

In 1991, SECRETS AND FALLING saw daylight, an EP containing four titles that opened the doors to a new CINDYTALK. This album is a renaissance: the voice returns more troubled and present than ever, while the instrumentation of guitar-bass-drums impose themselves anew in the breast of the atmospheric sounds. A life brilliant, furious, heated, and bruised pours out; on In Sunshine, a trumpet corroborates the shivering joy while enfolding the melody beneath a hood of nostalgia. Empty Hand's descent into Hell tightens the atmosphere, curving one's spine to the lyrical flights of Gordon Sharp's voice -- pain culminating in unison with supreme pleasure.

Shortly after, the minimalist Italian duo BLACK ROSE invited him to participate in their third opus : "THE ROOM INSIDE". The collaboration allowed the discovery of the CINDYTALK songs Touched and Circle of Shit in astonishing new versions where the voices of Mara Bressi and Gordon Sharp join together. The third song from this session is an unedited song, Moon Love, co-written by the two vocalists; hearing Gordon Sharp in such a singular sound environment merits much more than a detour.

-MACBETH-

In 1992, Gordon collaborated with Robin Guthrie (COCTEAU TWINS) on an unedited song recorded for VOLUME 5 (the famous series of compilations + magazines by Rob Deacon). Hidden under the name of MACBETH, he offers his interpretation of the song refused by Ivo -- the music of this Help Me Lift You Up is sumptuous, eclipsing the version by THIS MORTAL COIL. The voice is soft and tight, grating and silky. With a wink toward his Scottish friends, he envisioned using Lucybelle (the daughter of Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie) for background-babblings, but with Ivo having already "hired" her for the album "BLOOD" by THIS MORTAL COIL (listen carefully to the album!), he renounced the idea. At the time, Gordon dreamed of using MACBETH as an entity able to shelter his most accessible tendencies or reprises of traditional Scottish songs (... !). Unfortunately, because the new CINDYTALK album was ready but delayed because of the label (the failure of MIDNIGHT MUSIC at the end of 1991...), the MACBETH project was unable to materialize.

-Thisyearnextyearsometimeforever-

It wasn't until the end of 1994 that "WAPPINSCHAW" at last saw daylight on the group's own label: TOUCHED, distributed by WORLD SERPENT. This album is a return to the sources for CINDYTALK: Scotland and the insurrection. Haunted by the bagpipes of Calum Williams and by the phantom spirits of Meinhof, Rimbaud, Pasolini, Tarkovsky, Wallace..., the album oscillates between aggression and tenderness, reuniting on one disc the double poles of "IN THIS WORLD". Musically, the depth of the atmospheres and the flesh and blood aspect of the instruments confirm the evolution of "SECRETS AND FALLING". CINDYTALK roams between spasms, tears, lasciviousness and lacerations, dispensing a music devoted to the blood-soaked spirit and the tear-bathed body.

"PRINCE OF LIES" reappeared several months later (as a version just as tortuous) in the form of a forty-five. On the B-side, Muster (the hidden track at the end of the CD version of "WAPPINSCHAW") disintegrates the melody, an apoplectic chant projects: "Beauty will be convulsive or not at all"-- Breton's phrase is chanted like a prayer for some irrational power to restore the immortal spirits of other rebels.

We will leave Gordon Sharp to describe his music for himself (in 1987, answering questions of a former fanzine): "The music of CINDYTALK is a dark music, but certainly a spiritual music, maybe frightening, irregular, aggressive... or tender. The album is extreme, the voice wails, caresses and imposes itself by breaking in, but everyone can find something in it... It's a music of emotion. I'm very present but it's a relation to the world that I propose."

Reprinted with permission.