''Ophelia's Shadow'' is the fourth solo studio album by the British singer

Toyah Willcox Toyah Ann Willcox (born 18 May 1958) is an English musician, actress, and TV presenter. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Willcox has had eight top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays an ...

, released in 1991 by E.G. Records. Some musicians playing on this album have been members of

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 ...

at a certain moment, people like

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 ...

Gordon Haskell Gordon Haskell (27 April 1946 – 15 October 2020) was an English musician and songwriter. A pop, rock, jazz, country and blues vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, he was a school friend of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. The two first worke ...

Keith Tippett Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "..spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary ...

and

Trey Gunn Trey Gunn (born December 13, 1960) is an American musician, known for his membership in the progressive rock band King Crimson from 1994 to 2003, playing Warr Guitar and Chapman Stick. Biography A native Texan who now resides in Seattle, Washi ...

Background

The album was created with Tony Geballe as well as

and Paul Beavis with whom Toyah and her husband

constituted the band Sunday All Over the World at the same time. It was originally planned as part two of a trilogy, following '' Prostitute''. The title is a reference to

Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama '' Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends u ...

, a character from

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'', and

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

's psychological concept of the

shadow A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, ...

. In 2003, the album was reissued via Toyah's own Vertical Species label with a slightly changed artwork and new text introduction. In 2020, it was released as part of the '' Toyah Solo'' box set.

Track listing

# "Ophelia's Shadow" ''(

, Tony Geballe, Paul Beavis)'' – 5:54 # "The Shaman Says" ''(Geballe, Willcox)'' – 5:23 # "Brilliant Day" ''(Willcox,

, Gunn, Beavis)'' – 2:39 # "Prospect" ''(Geballe, Willcox)'' – 3:13 # "Turning Tide" ''(Geballe, Willcox)'' – 5:40 # "Take What You Will" ''(Beavis, Geballe, Gunn, Willcox)'' – 5:42 # "Ghost Light" ''(Gunn, Willcox, Geballe, Beavis)'' – 4:28 # "The Woman Who Had an Affair with Herself" ''(Geballe, Willcox)'' – 4:17 # "Homeward" ''(Geballe, Willcox)'' – 5:16 # "Lords of the Never Known" ''(Willcox, Fripp, Gunn, Beavis)'' – 4:32

Personnel

– vocals, producer, engineer, mixing * Tony Geballe – guitar, computer, engineer *

– stick, keyboards, engineer *Paul Beavis – drums, percussion ;Additional musicians *

– guitar on tracks 3 and 10 (uncredited), mixing *

– keyboards on track 10 *

– keyboard intro on track 1 ;Production *Tony Arnold – backing tracks producer, engineer

References

External links

Official audio stream
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

The official Toyah website
{{Authority control 1991 albums Toyah Willcox albums E.G. Records albums Ophelia Works based on Hamlet