SO long has passed since Cocteau Twins fractured irreparably in 1997 that keyboard player Simon Raymonde had parted with all his instruments and was focusing solely on running Bella Union, his label with impeccable taste.

Then along came North Carolina singer Stephanie Dosen, whose debut album he produced as he worked with a singer for the first time since the Cocteaus’ Elizabeth Fraser. And so their subsequent union in Snowbird was “born from love, musical empathy, a baby grand piano discovered by Raymonde on Gumtree and an expired visa” that sent Dosen packing back to the USA. Raymonde wrote piano pieces by moonlight in London, sending them through technology’s ether highway to Dosen, who would add lyrics and dreamy vocals by the next morning in America.

Hear the gorgeous melodies and air of mystery, blindfolded and from a distance, and you would be forgiven for thinking Raymonde had reunited with Fraser. Dosen, however, sings real words of nocturnal happenings, not Fraser’s made-up marshmallow language, and moonlight truly becomes her.