With Four-Calendar Café almost a distant memory and the release of Milk & Kisses still a few months away the band suddenly came up with two very unusual EP's. Both Twinlights and Otherness, released just a month apart, are very different from the band's other work, and both came with some strikingly beautiful artwork on the sleeve as well. Both EP's contain four tracks, some of which were remakes of older work, some of which were to appear in 'normal' versions on Milk & Kisses.

That's where the similarities end though, since the two EP's could hardly be more different in style and atmosphere. The tracks on Twinlights are completely acoustic, subtle, with the emphasis on beauty and purity. The atmosphere consequently is one of sweetness and innocence, and not even a hint of a discord is to be found anywhere. It is ironic to realize that this is actually the same band that many years ago started out with an album based on a distorted guitar concept!

Although the EP itself is long out of print all four of its songs are also included on the Lullabies To Violaine compilation.

Rilkean Heart

This version of Rilkean Heart is even more delicate than the one found on Milk & Kisses. Just a piano supports Liz on her travels through the reflections and contemplations of her mind. The atmosphere is so fragile one hardly dares to breathe in fear of breaking the magic spell. To sustain the suspense for a longer period would be very hard though, which may well explain why the band decided to shorten this version to just over half its original length.

Golden-Vein

As the only track on this EP not previously recorded Golden-Vein sounds as if it was always meant to be performed acoustically. Piano, acoustic guitar and vocal - that's the line-up of the band. Liz reaches new summits of beauty here, sounding as much like a voice from heaven as you're ever likely to hear. In fact everything is so sweet and harmonious that it gets dangerously close to sounding a bit flat from being too beautiful. A change in key midway through just about prevents the song from falling into that trap.

The band recorded a slightly adapted version of this song during one of their BBC sessions.

Pink Orange Red

Ten years after putting this song on Tiny Dynamine this acoustic version was recorded. The piano has a hard time replacing the original guitars though, and Liz is almost trying a bit too hard to express extra sensitivity. Towards the end the lack of vocal overdubs shows all too clearly how vital their contributions were to the final result. Even though the piano sounds fine the song lacks a lot of the spirit which made the original so appealing.

Some people might wish for a version 'inbetween' this one and the original, with both piano and guitars. Somebody called Philip Meehan felt so too and very expertly created such a version. You can listen to the result of his efforts here.

Half-Gifts

If ever there was a Cocteau song that was an obvious candidate to be recorded in an acoustic version it surely has to be Half-Gifts. The Milk & Kisses version already centered around Liz' vocals, and this version shows how little the instrumental parts effectively contribute to this song. All the guitars are replaced by a piano and violins - and it hardly makes any difference! The emotions and feelings of Liz are all that matter, and if anything they are more conspicuous in this version. One feels the song might not even be all that different if it just contained Liz' vocals and nothing else.