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.

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.

[1] 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."

One of the Wild Opera tracks, "Dry Cleaning Ray," was released, albeit in radio edit and remixed form, as a vinyl single in 1997.

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.