''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 singer-songwriter, actress, and television presenter. In a career spanning more than 40 years, she has had eight top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 ...

, released in 1991 by

E.G. Records Virgin EG Records (formerly E.G. Records until 1991) was a British artist management company and independent record label, mostly active during the 1970s and 1980s. The initials stood for its founders, David Enthoven and John Gaydon. The pair ...

. Some musicians playing on this album have been members of

King Crimson King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...

at a certain moment, people like

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English musician, composer, 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 mu ...

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 contemporar ...

and

Trey Gunn Trey Gunn (born December 13, 1960) is an American musician, known for being in the progressive rock band King Crimson from 1994 to 2003. He plays Warr Guitar and Chapman Stick instruments. Biography A native Texan who now resides in New Mexi ...

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 Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...

''. 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. Due to Hamlet's actions, Ophelia ultima ...

, a character from

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 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 Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'', and

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

's psychological concept of the

shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...

. 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 ''Toyah Solo'' is a compilation box set by British singer Toyah Willcox, consisting of seven CDs and a DVD, released on Edsel Records in 2020. Background The box contains most of Toyah's solo work from 1985 to 2003, featuring the six albums '' Mi ...

'' 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 an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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