Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance is a British-Australian musical group formed in Melbourne in 1981 by British Brendan Perry and Australian Lisa Gerrard. The band settled in London in May 1982. It is one of the most important cult bands in the gothic rock, dark wave, post-punk and world music scenes.
Australian music historian Ian McFarlane describes the style of Dead Can Dance as “constructed soundscapes of mesmerizing grandeur and solemn beauty; African polyrhythms, Gaelic folklore, Gregorian chant, Middle Eastern mantras and art rock."
After disbanding in 1998, the band reunited briefly in 2005 for a world tour and reformed in 2011, releasing a new album (Anastasis) and embarking on several tours.
History
Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne in 1981, initially settling in Australia. Not having great prospects for success in that country, they moved to London, where after a year they signed to the legendary alternative rock label 4AD, becoming one of its most important bands. They continued to work together well into the 1990s, when they began working separately. Lisa Gerrard returned to Australia, while Brendan Perry went to Ireland, where he bought an old church, Quivy Church, in which he lives and works.
Assigning a musical genre to Dead Can Dance is difficult, as their style was particularly eclectic. However, although their early works are often classified as gothic music, the members themselves have denied this. Each one of the group's albums is influenced by one or several cultures, aesthetic lines and musical movements from the most ancient, such as Gregorian chants and traditional Persian music. However, they always keep roots in ancient ethnic music. His latest albums are extraordinarily different from the first three.
The name Dead Can Dance means to put life back into something that is dead, or has not been used for a long time. Some of the instruments they use are old or rare in Western music. Perhaps the first thing we should try to decipher before talking about Dead Can Dance is the origin and meaning of its name, which according to statements by Gerrard and Perry was born from an extensive process of meditation, given the need to inject new life into music. and instruments that could be considered dead and obsolete. It is precisely this interpretation that justifies the use of a whole range of musical elements, ranging from the most common, such as the guitar, keyboards, percussion and synthesizers, to others with much more classical nuances, such as the bagpipes., the violin, the cello, the tuba, the yangqin or the hurdy-gurdy
They temporarily separated in 1998 and reunited for a tour of Europe, Canada, the United States and Mexico in 2005. They took advantage of that tour to release their compilation album Memento, following in the wake of a reduced version of that they released in 2001 that was supposed to be their farewell Box Set.
Brendan promised an album and a tour for 2012, and he kept his word, since on August 8, 2012 he kicked off a new world tour that promoted his album Anastasis (2012), released in August of that same year.
The song The Host of Seraphim was featured on the soundtrack of the films Baraka, The Mist and Ga'Hoole: Legend of the Guardians.
Members
- Brendan Perry
- Lisa Gerrard
Discography
Albums
- Dead Can Dance (1984)
- Spleen and Ideal (1985)
- Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)
- The Serpent's Egg (1988)
- Aion (1990)
- Into the Labyrinth (1993)
- Toward the Within (live) (1994)
- Spiritchaser (1996)
- Anastasis (2012)
- Dionysus (2018)
Compilations
- A Passage in Time (1991)
- Box set (3CD's) (1981-1998) (2001)
- Wake The Best of Dead Can Dance (2003)
- Memento The Very Best of Dead Can Dance (2005)
Videography
Concerts
- Toward the Within (1994)
- In Concert (2013)
Contributions
- Lonely Is an Eyesore (compilation of 4AD, 1987)
- All Virgos Are Mad (compilation of 4AD, 1994)
- Gladiator (Soundtrack Decca Records, 2000)
- Legend of the Guardians (Soundtrack) 2010