Sleeps with the Fishes is the lone collaborative album from Clan of Xymox founding member Pieter Nooten and Canadian guitarist/producer Michael Brook, released by 4AD on 12 October 1987.

[1] Intended as Nooten's debut solo album after a brief split from Clan of Xymox, the record turned into a collaboration with Brook after a suggestion from 4AD label founder and boss Ivo Watts-Russell.

"[2] According to Martin Aston's 2013 book Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, the genesis of the album formed after Pieter Nooten left Clan of Xymox in 1987 (leader Ronny Moorings subsequently restored the band's name to simply 'Xymox').

[3] Nooten had told Watts-Russell that he had some "basic, but still intimate, melancholic material," which the label boss had appreciated and responded with the offer of making a solo album.

Additionally, Nooten and vocalist Deirdre Rutkowski performed a version of "Several Times I" as part of This Mortal Coil on the collective's album Blood in 1991.

[6] Brook would continue producing and recording, including three further albums on 4AD: Cobalt Blue and Live at the Aquarium in 1992,[7] and the motion picture soundtrack for the film Albino Alligator in 1997.

Sleeps with the Fishes comprises 15 excellent, moody soundscapes, given depth by Nooten's subtle vocals and instrumentation that sounds piped in from some dreamy other world.

Defever singles out Sleeps with the Fishes and fellow 4AD releases Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares by the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir and This Mortal Coil's cover of "Song to the Siren" as most influential, and told Martin Aston in Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD in 2013, "Twenty-five years later, they still seem just as important, inspirational, bewildering and mystifying.