Dead Can Dance

All Music Guide:

Dead Can Dance combine elements of European folk music -- particularly music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance -- with ambient pop and worldbeat flourishes. Their songs are of lost beauty, regret and sorrow, inspiration and nobility, and of the everlasting human goal of attaining a meaningful existence.

Over the course of their career, Dead Can Dance has featured a multitude of members, but two musicians have remained at the core of the band -- guitarist Brendan Perry and vocalist Lisa Gerrard. Perry had previously been the lead vocalist and bassist for the Australian-based punk band the Scavengers, a group who were never able to land a recording contract. In 1979, the band changed their name to the Marching Girls, but they still weren't able to sign a contract. The following year, Perry left the group and began experimenting with electronic music, particularly tape loops and rhythms. In 1981, Perry formed Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard, Paul Erikson, and Simon Monroe. By 1982, Perry and Gerrard decided to relocate to London; Erikson and Monroe decided to stay in Australia.

Within a year, Dead Can Dance had signed a record deal with 4AD. In the spring of 1984, they released their eponymous debut album, comprised of songs the pair had written in the previous four years. By the end of the year, the group had contributed two tracks to It'll End in Tears, the first album by This Mortal Coil, and had released an EP called Garden of the Arcane Delights. In 1985, Dead Can Dance released their second album, Spleen and Ideal. The album helped build their European cult following, peaking at number two on the U.K. indie charts.

For the next two years, Dead Can Dance were relatively quiet, releasing only two new songs in 1986, both which appeared on the 4AD compilation Lonely Is an Eyesore. Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, the group's third album, appeared in 1986. In 1988, the band released their fourth album, The Serpent's Egg, and wrote the score for the Agustin Villarongas film El Nino de la Luna, which also featured Lisa Gerrard in her acting debut.

Aion, Dead Can Dance's fifth album, was released in 1990. Also in 1990, the group toured America for the first time, earning rave reviews. The following year, the group was involved in various festivals and theatrical productions. In 1991, the compilation A Passage in Time was released on Rykodisc, making it the first American release of Dead Can Dance music. Early in 1993, the group provided the score to Baraka and contributed songs to Sahara Blue. In the fall of 1993, the group released Into the Labyrinth, which became their first proper studio album to receive an American release. Into the Labyrinth was a cult success throughout the U.S. and Europe. It was followed by another American and European tour, which was documented on the 1994 album and film, Toward the Within. In 1995, Lisa Gerrard released her debut solo album, The Mirror Pool. In the summer of 1996, Dead Can Dance released Spiritchaser and embarked on an international tour. The duo officially disbanded in 1999; Gerrard continued working as a solo artist and composed music for films such as Heat, The Insider, and Gladiator. Perry also established a solo career, issuing Eye of the Hunter in 2000. In 2001, Rhino released the band's first comprehensive box set, Dead Can Dance 1981-1998. Rumours of their reunion also began to swirl around this time, however Gerrard's solo career remained steadfast. Her work with composer Patrick Cassidy, Immortal Memory, followed in 2004. Several months later, Gerrard and Perry made it official and reunited for a world tour. Dates in North America and Europe followed in 2005 while Rhino once more recognized the duo with a greatest hits collection. Momento: The Very Best of Dead Can Dance appeared in October 2005.

Wikipedia:

Dead Can Dance (sometimes referred to as DCD) are an Australian/British ethereal neoclassical duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981, by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. The band relocated to London in May 1982 and disbanded in 1998. Their 1996 album Spiritchaser reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart. Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance as having an ambient style of world music that "constructed soundscapes of mesmerising grandeur and solemn beauty; African polyrhythms, Gaelic folk, Gregorian chants, Middle Eastern mantras, and art-rock."

Formation and early years

Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981 with Paul Erikson on bass guitar, Lisa Gerrard (ex-Microfilm) on vocals, Simon Monroe (Marching Girls) on drums and Brendan Perry (Marching Girls) on vocals and guitar. Gerrard and Perry were also a domestic couple and they left Monroe in Australia when they moved to London in May 1982, where they signed with alternative rock label 4AD Records. With the duo, the initial United Kingdom line-up were James Pinker, Scott Rodger and Peter Ulrich.

The group's debut album, Dead Can Dance, which appeared in February 1984, was produced by the band. The artwork (see pictured), which depicts a ritual mask from New Guinea, "provide[s] a visual reinterpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance", written in the Greek Alphabet. The album "featured drum-driven, ambient guitar music with chanting, singing and howling". They followed with a four-track extended play, Garden of the Arcane Delights in August. Allmusic's reviewer, Ned Raggett felt their early work had been "as goth as it gets", while this album saw them "plunging into a wider range of music and style".

For their second album, Spleen and Ideal, the group comprised the core duo of Gerrard and Perry with cello, trombones and tympani added in by session musicians. It appeared in November 1985 and was co-produced by the duo with John A. Rivers. Raggett describes it as "a consciously medieval European sound ... like it was recorded in an immense cathedral". The group built a following in Europe, and this album reached No. 2 on the UK indie charts. By 1989, Gerrard and Perry had separated domestically – Gerrard returned to Australia and Perry moved to Ireland – but they still wrote, recorded and performed together as Dead Can Dance.

Wider acceptance

Dead Can Dance's albums were not widely available in the United States until the early 1990s, when 4AD made a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records. 4AD allied itself with the Beggars Banquet Records Group, which included that eponymous label and XL Recordings in the US, but the band's recordings remained distributed through Warner Bros. Records. Subsequent releases, however, have been licensed to Rhino/Atlantic Records, a sister label within Warner Music. Their 1991 compilation, A Passage in Time, remains with 4AD independently of the Rhino and Warner Bros. deals; it was initially only released in the US.

Their sixth studio album, Into the Labyrinth, was issued in September 1993 and dispensed with guest musicians entirely; it sold 500,000 copies worldwide and appeared on the Billboard 200. The band had become 4AD's highest selling act. They followed with a world tour in 1994 and recorded a live performance in California which was released as Toward the Within, with video versions on Laserdisc and VHS (later on DVD). Many unofficial bootlegs of concerts spanning their career exist, containing several rare songs that were only performed live. Toward the Within is the duo's only official live album. It reached the Billboard 200. Gerrard released her debut solo recording, The Mirror Pool, and recombined with Perry for the Dead Can Dance studio album, Spiritchaser, in 1996. The album also charted on Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 on the Top World Music Albums Chart.

Disbandment and reunions

In 1998, Dead Can Dance planned a follow-up to Spiritchaser, but the band separated before it was realised. One song from the recording sessions, "The Lotus Eaters", was eventually released on the box set Dead Can Dance (1981-1998) and on the 2-disc compilation Wake (2003). Gerrard teamed with Pieter Bourke (Snog, Soma) to issue Duality in April 1998. Perry released Eye of the Hunter in October 1999.

Dead Can Dance reunited in 2005 and released limited-edition recordings of 13 shows from its European tour, and 8 recordings from the subsequent North American tour, as well as a compilation titled Selections from Europe 2005. These concerts were recorded and released on The Show record label.

On 28 March 2010, in an interview for Bulgaria’s Katehizis.com online music magazine, Perry revealed the possibility of a future Dead Can Dance reunion: "Yes, I’ve been talking about it with Lisa [Gerrard]. Maybe in the end of next year we’ll start work again. We’ve been talking about doing something like taking a small chamber orchestra – 10 or 15 people – and tour with them. And we have to write songs. We have to write new material – totally new – so the whole, entire set will be a new album. Then we’ll go into the studio after the tour, record, produce and release a record as well." This was confirmed in the official Brendan Perry forum on 12 May 2011: "I have been talking with Lisa Gerrard this past week with regard to recording a new DCD album this coming winter. We hope to complete the album by the summer of 2012 and then embark on an extensive two month world tour in late 2012." The band made a formal announcement about its world tour and new album, yet untitled, for a release date of 9 August.

On September 30, 2011, Dead Can Dance announced the release of a four track EP entitled Live Happenings – Part 1 available for free download from their website. Since December the EP Live Happenings - Part 2 replaced the first EP. Both EPs contain songs from their 2005 Tour. Since January 31, 2012, the EP available was Live Happenings – Part 3, to be replaced by Live Happenings - Part IV on March 20, 2012.

In late 2011, the band announced a reunion World Tour, including 12 US cities, to be accompanied by the release of a new album. The tour is scheduled to begin August 9th, 2012 in Canada and end October 28th, 2012 in Ireland.