Wild Opera

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title: "Wild Opera" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1996-albums", "no-man-albums"] topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Opera" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox album"]

Field	Value
name	Wild Opera
type	Album
artist	No-Man
cover	Wildopera.jpg
released	9 September 1996
recorded	Autumn 1994–spring 1995
studio	No Man's Land, Hemel Hempstead
genre	Trip hop, art rock
length	55:09
label	3rd. Stone Ltd., Kscope
producer	Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson
prev_title	Flowermouth
prev_year	1994
next_title	Returning Jesus
next_year	2001
misc	{{Singles
name	Wild Opera
type	studio
single1	Housewives Hooked on Heroin
single1date	8 April 1996
header	2010 Edition
type	Album
cover	No-Man - Wild Opera (2010).jpg
caption	Cover of the remastered edition
::

Wild Opera is No-Man's third studio album which displays art rock, trip hop and dub influences that were developed from improvisatory writing sessions.

History

In 1996, No-Man announced their return on a new label, 3rd Stone Ltd., home of Spacemen 3 and Bark Psychosis. This was led by the Housewives Hooked on Heroin single (a Hot Press "Single of the Fortnight"), a taster for the Wild Opera album which followed that autumn.

Originally, the follow-up to Flowermouth album was meant to be the product of writing sessions that followed almost immediately after the release of said album. According to Bowness, "by the middle of 1994, we’d written around 35 minutes of material." One relevant piece that emerged from these initial sessions was the 20-minute electronic/disco Love You to Bits, which would only be completed and released 25 years later as a full-length album itself. The other was "Song About The Heart," which later evolved into "Lighthouse," released seven years later as one of the mainstays from the Returning Jesus album.

Bowness and Wilson had recently finished recording and releasing albums with their respective side projects. Firstly, Flame, a collaboration between Bowness and Richard Barbieri, a recent No-Man collaborator/guest along with his former Japan bandmates Mick Karn and Steve Jansen. Secondly, Wilson, with his newly-established Porcupine Tree lineup (which included Barbieri) had worked on the band's third album The Sky Moves Sideways.

In this line, Bowness claims there was "a need to distance ourselves from the gloss and control exhibited on those albums," and, consequently, "we decided to abandon the songs we’d been working on for the previous six months." Thus, "an abrupt about face resulted in the more spontaneous sessions that produced Wild Opera," as well as its accompanying EP/mini-album Dry Cleaning Ray.

Accordingly, most of the album had emerged from a series of semi-spontaneous improvisations recorded over a few hours rather than planned-out attempts at songwriting, as recounted by Tim Bowness. He further described the album as "‘music on the move’. I wrote the lyrics in the studio as we were completing the ‘hourlongs’, or on the back of tickets on tube journeys home from the sessions.

The raw results of such sessions appeared on the album and are exemplified by two tracks. "Libertine Libretto," for instance, was recorded on August 17, 1994, between 3 and 4 pm, while "Hit the Ceiling," a b-side from the "Housewives Hooked on Heroin" single, was recorded on September 20, 1995 between 1 and 2 pm.

"Taste My Dream" was one of the few pre-composed tracks on the album, a demo of which was originally recorded during the 1993-1994 sessions for Flame.

The title track itself is unlisted and appears as a 'hidden' bonus track.

''Dry Cleaning Ray''

One of the Wild Opera tracks, "Dry Cleaning Ray," was released, albeit in radio edit and remixed form, as a vinyl single in 1997. It also spawned the Dry Cleaning Ray mini-album. Dry Cleaning Ray presented reworked Wild Opera material, Gainsbourg covers, remixes (such as "Punished For Being Born", Muslimgauze's version of "Housewives Hooked on Heroin"), and instrumental moments. It also offered new songs such as "Sicknote."

Track listing

"Pretty Genius" contains samples of "Walk On By", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and performed by Isaac Hayes.
"Dry Cleaning Ray" contains samples of "Fugue in D Minor", written by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Egg.

CD1 – ''Wild Opera''

Same as original release.

CD2 – ''Dry Cleaning Ray'' with bonus tracks

Personnel

Tim Bowness – vocals, tapes, words
Steven Wilson – instruments, tapes, backing vocals (2, 5)

with:

Richard Barbieri – sample material
Natalie Box – violins (1, 2)
Mel Collins – sample material, saxophone (1)
Robert Fripp – sample material

References

(7 September 1996). "New Releases: Albums".
(9 February 2010). "Wild Opera".
(6 April 1996). "New Singles".
[{{AllMusic
"Hot Press review".
"Melody Maker review".
"Music Week review".
(18 February 2019). "Kevin Godley / 10cc".
"None".
"None".

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