The Tear Garden is a psychedelic/gothic/electronic band, formed by Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots and cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy in 1985 after Key served Ka-Spel on tour in Canada as a sound engineer. The Tear Garden was released that same year, with Dave Ogilvie producing.
The group reconvened in 1987 to release Tired Eyes Slowly Burning with contributions from the other members of Skinny Puppy to a limited degree of success. Members of the Legendary Pink Dots would henceforth contribute to Tear Garden and in 1992 they released the full-length album Last Man to Fly. Another EP, Sheila Liked The Rodeo, much of which was live studio improvisation was accompanied by a video (directed by William Morrison) of the title track in 1993.
With the collapse of Skinny Puppy in 1995 and cEvin’s primary commitment over, he and The Tear Garden released To Be an Angel Blind, The Crippled Soul Divide in 1996, followed by Crystal Mass in 2000. Crystal Mass marked a departure for the group, with more focus seemingly directed toward sound and production than the traditional staple, the lyrics. In 2002 a limited edition compilation of previously unreleased songs, Eye Spy With My Little Eye came out on Key’s Subconscious Communications label. A best of, For Those Who Walk With The Gods is also available.
The Tear Garden have never toured, a detail that has limited their commercial potential. The only live performance of Tear Garden material by members of both Skinny Puppy and the Legendary Pink Dots was on April 14, 1988 in Leiden, Holland and May 1, 1988 at Foyer St. Arbogast in Strassbourg France, during Skinny Puppy’s Head Trauma tour, for which Edward Ka-Spel was the opening solo act. At the end of Ka-Spel’s set cEvin Key joined him on guitar and keyboards for a performance of the song The Centre Bullet. The Legendary Pink Dots have performed Isis Veiled as an almost necessary encore at every show during their last few tours.
As of March 2008, after having successfully collaborated in 2007 on "The Secret Experiment", cEvin Key has made mention that Edward Ka-Spel is due to show up in Los Angeles sometime soon and that new material could possibly arise from any presumed meeting of the pair.