Sunday, August 16, 2020

DEAD CAN DANCE - s/t LP 1984

Today to a band that I appreciate very much and always enjoy playing: Dead Can Dance, formed 1981 in Melbourne by Brendan Perry (The Scavengers/The Marching Girls) & Lisa Gerrard. Excllent info from their 4AD label for you: "Their music began as collages made from musical lineages, lost tribes and cultures long since forgotten - and by giving new life to so much from the past, they created a genuinely timeless body of work. They shared vocal responsibilities, and while Perry was certainly capable of haunting subtleties and real sonority as a singer, it was more often Gerrard's rhapsodic vocalising that drew the attention of critics and fans. In a sense, Gerrard didn't simply sing for Dead Can Dance: she made sounds with her voice, and turned that experience into something much larger and more far-ranging than mere singing. Perry's soundscapes blur distinctions between organic and sampled, old and new, drawing on disparate traditions (neo–classical, choral, baroque, troubadour) and weaving together influences from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, the Mediterranean and beyond..." I was lucky to see this fantastic band live in the old opera house in Frankfurt and the almost three-hour performance is one of the best I've ever seen live. With around twenty artists on stage and the appropriate equipment, they filled the hall with their spherical music and sent you into other worlds, far away from reality and I can tell you, my pearl and I are went home very impressed & flashed. "...having finally secured their contract in 1983, it wasn't until March the following year that 4AD released their eponymous first album, a collection of the songs they had written over the previous four years. Also 1984 they released a 12'' "Garden Of The Arcane Delights" which is included here as bonus." Though the band split in 1998, they reformed briefly for a world tour in 2005. In winter 2011, they reunited once again to record a new album and completed a world tour promoting its release in 2012 and they're still alive. I recommend you get to know this band, no matter what album you start with, there is no bad one.


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