''Flowermouth'' is the second studio album by British duo

No-Man No-Man are an English art pop duo, formed in 1987 as No Man Is an Island (Except the Isle of Man) by singer Tim Bowness and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. The band has so far produced seven studio albums and a number of singles/outtakes ...

, released in 1994 on the

One Little Indian Records One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In th ...

label, and subsequently reissued on September, 1999 by 3rd. Stone Ltd, and in a deluxe format by

Snapper Music Snapper Music is an independent record label founded in 1996 by former head of Castle Communications Jon Beecher, Dougie Dudgeon and funded by Mark Levinson from Palan Music Publishing. In 1999, Snapper broke away from its Palan parent company ...

in February 2005.

History

Flowermouth was considered the band's most ambitious album to date, and remains a fan favourite. Despite being the band's best selling release, it was obvious by now that

couldn't continue along the path which their record company wanted them to follow. Following ''Flowermouths release,

parted company with both One Little Indian in Britain and Epic/Sony in the US. Long-term band member Ben Coleman had left prior to the album's release and by 1994, the band had effectively retired from live performance. Considered a vitally important evolution, the album realized the expansive promise of the band's earlier material. Combining

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

and moody minimalism, with an epic orchestral scope, ''Flowermouth'' was well served by the guest performances of Japan/Rain Tree Crow's Jansen and Barbieri,

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

and

Mel Collins Melvyn Desmond Collins (born 5 September 1947, Isle of Man) is a British saxophonist, flautist and session musician. Collins has played in several progressive rock groups, having been a member of King Crimson on two occasions (the first from ...

, jazz trumpeter

Ian Carr Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall ...

and

Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are an Australian music duo first established in Melbourne. Currently composed of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, the group formed in 1981. They relocated to London the following year. Australian music historian Ian McFarlane des ...

singer

Lisa Gerrard Lisa Germaine Gerrard (; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique ( ...

. The original One Little Indian version of Flowermouth features several slightly different mixes to the ones featured on the later reissues. For the second reissue,

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosio ...

delivered a definitive remaster and the band have added two bonus tracks to the running order ("Angeldust" and "Born Simple", both originally from the now- deleted "

Flowermix ''Flowermix'' is a remix album by British Art rock band No-Man made by the band and selected underground remixers. It is a compilation of remixed and reworked songs from their ''Flowermouth'' album. Track listing All songs by Bowness / Wilson C ...

" album and featuring extensive soundscape contributions from

). The reissue also features improved digi-pack artwork and new sleevenotes containing a combined band interview/essay by music journalist

Dann Chinn Dann is an English surname. It is a toponymic surname which came from Middle English and Old English , "valley". Variant spellings include Dan and Dane. According to statistics compiled by Patrick Hanks on the basis of the 2011 United Kingdom ...

. Portions of the recording sessions ran parallel to those of the Barbieri & Bowness'

Flame A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...

project (released two months later, also on One Little Indian). Wire Magazine, in conjunction with the label, distributed a four-track sampler CD with their July 1994 issue which included two tracks from each release. The strings from the end of "Watching Over Me" were later sampled for the song "Only Rain" on ''

Returning Jesus ''Returning Jesus'' is the fourth studio album by British art rock band No-Man, released on the 3rd Stone records in 27 March 2001. History A collection of ambitious songs which combined classical, jazz, soul and ambient influences in an orig ...

'' in 2001. A music video was made for the song "You Grow More Beautiful."

Track listing

#"Angel Gets Caught in the Beauty Trap" – 9:56 #"You Grow More Beautiful" – 5:37 #"Animal Ghost" – 6:09 #"Soft Shoulders" – 3:57 #"Shell of a Fighter" – 7:48 #"Teardrop Fall" – 4:37 #"Watching Over Me" – 4:48 #"Simple" – 7:03 #"Things Change" – 7:31

2005 bonus tracks

#"Angeldust" – 9:11 #"Born Simple" – 12:09

Personnel

Tim Bowness Tim Bowness (born 29 November 1963) is an English singer and songwriter primarily known for his work as part of the band No-Man, a long-term project formed in 1987 with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson. Music career In addition to recording album ...

– vocals, words *

– instruments with: *

Richard Barbieri Richard Barbieri (born 30 November 1957) is an English musician, composer and sound designer. Originally a member of new wave band Japan (and their brief 1989–1991 reincarnation as Rain Tree Crow), more recently he is known as the keyboard ...

– electronics (5) *

– trumpet (1) * Ben Coleman – violins (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), electric violin (9) *

– soprano saxophone (1), flute (3, 6) *

– guitar (1, 3, 5, 6, 8),

frippertronics Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

(1, 5, 8, 9) *

– voice sample (8) *

Steve Jansen ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

– percussion (7) *

Chris Maitland Chris Maitland (born 13 May 1964) is an English drummer. Maitland was born in Cambridge, England. After being the drummer for No-Man on their Autumn 1993 tour (and playing on two tracks on their ''Flowermouth'' album), Maitland was asked b ...

– drums (1, 9), percussion (1, 3) * Silas Maitland – fretless bass (1)

Release history

References

{{Authority control No-Man albums One Little Independent Records albums 1994 albums