Twinlights is a 1995 EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 by the Cocteau Twins

Cocteau Twins

Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals...

. It was released along with the EP Otherness

Otherness (EP)

Otherness is a 1995 EP by the Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was released along with Twinlights as a teaser for the full length album Milk and Kisses. While it was a companion piece to Twinlights, it was very different in style. Otherness a remix album, the only such album released by the band...

as a teaser for the album Milk and Kisses

Milk and Kisses

Milk & Kisses is an album by Cocteau Twins issued in 1996. It proved their last; a meeting two years later to record a new album ended with the breakup of the band....

. It is a mainly instrumental affair with allmusic referring to it as "being as close to an "unplugged" effort as the Twins ever got." The EP was originally released on CD as well as a 2x7" vinyl set.

The EP has four tracks, two of which were reimagined for Milk and Kisses ("Rilkean Heart" and "Half-Gifts"). "Pink Orange Red", which was released on the 1985 EP Tiny Dynamine

Tiny Dynamine

Tiny Dynamine is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD Records. The EP features four non-album tracks. It was issued on 15 November 1985, two weeks prior to another EP entitled Echoes in a Shallow Bay. The two EP sets, which feature complementary artwork, were also...

, is a stripped down version of the original with a piano playing the melody and opening. "Golden-Vein" is the only track on the EP not to appear on any other release.

Elizabeth Fraser

Elizabeth Fraser

Elizabeth Davidson Fraser is a Scottish singer best known as the vocalist for the pioneer alternative rock group Cocteau Twins...

 describes this EP as being about a man she fell in love with during the 1994 Four-Calendar Cafe

Four-Calendar Café

Four-Calendar Café is the eighth and penultimate album by three-piece Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was originally released in 1993 on Fontana...

tour. The mystery man has been speculated to be Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley

Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...

 by Fraser's biographer but she has never confirmed or denied this.

The song "Rilkean Heart" is a homage to Jeff Buckley who was a lifelong lover of Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...

's work.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Cocteau Twins

1. "Rilkean Heart" - 2:22
2. "Golden-Vein" - 2:49
3. "Pink Orange Red" - 4:29
4. "Half-Gifts" - 4:15

• String arrangements by Thomas M. Hill

Performers

• Robin Guthrie
  Robin Guthrie
  Robin Guthrie is a musician best known as co-founder of the Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has played guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing...
  
  
• Elizabeth Fraser
  Elizabeth Fraser
  Elizabeth Davidson Fraser is a Scottish singer best known as the vocalist for the pioneer alternative rock group Cocteau Twins...
  
  
• Simon Raymonde
  Simon Raymonde
  Simon Philip Raymonde is an English musician and record producer. He is the son of the late arranger and composer, Ivor Raymonde.-Career:...
  
  

• Phil Boyden, Violin
• Paul Costin, Violin
• Fiona Griffith, Viola
• Helen Thomas, Cello