Dead Can Dance
Encyclopedia
Dead Can Dance are an 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...with African polyrhythms, Gaelic folk, Gregorian chants, Middle Eastern mantras, and art-rock."
(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 Erikson and 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". 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". In 1994, both were packaged together on a CD version of Dead Can Dance.
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.
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.
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."
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.
Ethereal Wave
Ethereal Wave, also called ethereal darkwave in Europe and ethereal goth or simply ethereal in the US, is a term that describes a subgenre of Dark Wave music...
neoclassical
Neoclassical (Dark Wave)
Neoclassical Dark Wave refers to a music genre within the Dark Wave movement. It is characterized by the use of ethereal atmosphere and angelic female voices but also adds strong influences from classical music. Neoclassical Dark Wave is distinct from the academic art music form known as...
duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1981, by Lisa Gerrard
Lisa Gerrard
Lisa Gerrard is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry....
and Brendan Perry
Brendan Perry
Brendan Michael Perry is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the male half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.-Early life:...
. The band relocated to London in May 1982 and disbanded in 1998. Their 1996 album Spiritchaser
Spiritchaser
Spiritchaser is the seventh and last studio album by Dead Can Dance before Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard went their separate ways. It expands on its exploration of world music and like Into the Labyrinth, Spiritchaser was recorded at Quivvy Church, Perry's personal studio in Ireland.The track...
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...with 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 GerrardLisa Gerrard
Lisa Gerrard is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry....
(ex-Microfilm) on vocals, Simon Monroe (Marching Girls
The Scavengers
The Scavengers were a New Zealand Punk Rock band, formed in 1977. In 1979 they moved to Melbourne, Australia, and became The Marching Girls in 1980.-History:...
) on drums and Brendan Perry
Brendan Perry
Brendan Michael Perry is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the male half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.-Early life:...
(Marching Girls
The Scavengers
The Scavengers were a New Zealand Punk Rock band, formed in 1977. In 1979 they moved to Melbourne, Australia, and became The Marching Girls in 1980.-History:...
) on vocals and guitar. Gerrard and Perry were also a domestic couple and they left Erikson and Monroe in Australia when they moved to London in May 1982, where they signed with alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
label 4AD Records. With the duo, the initial United Kingdom line-up were James Pinker, Scott Rodger and Peter Ulrich
Peter Ulrich
Peter Ulrich is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and recording artist.-Biography:He was educated at Vaughan School in West Harrow, Cannon Lane School in Pinner, The John Lyon School in Harrow, and Hatfield Polytechnic from which he graduated in Humanities.A self-taught drummer, he began playing...
.
The group's debut album, Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance (album)
Dead Can Dance is the debut album recorded by Dead Can Dance in 1984. This album differs greatly from later Dead Can Dance releases. The instrumentation consisted of guitars, bass and drums with added percussion and the very distinct sound of the Yang Chin as played by Lisa Gerrard. This album has...
, which appeared in February 1984, was produced by the band. The artwork (see pictured), which depicts a ritual mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
from New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, "provide[s] a visual reinterpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance". 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
Garden of the Arcane Delights
Garden of the Arcane Delights was released by the group Dead Can Dance on 4AD. This was the only EP release by Dead Can Dance and it was originally released as a 12" record...
in August. Allmusic's reviewer, Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett is a library assistant, freelance writer and music journalist. His work has been published in Allmusic, the OC Weekly, Plan B, Metal Edge and The Quietus, while pieces have also appeared in Dream, Arthur, as well as Stylus, The Broken Face, Fake Jazz, Freaky Trigger, Careless Talk...
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". In 1994, both were packaged together on a CD version of Dead Can Dance.
Spleen and Ideal
Spleen and Ideal is the second album recorded by Dead Can Dance, released in 1986. The line up continued with Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, Scott Rodger, James Pinker and Peter Ulrich with the addition of Gus Ferguson on Cello...
, 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
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
– 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 4AD4AD
4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
made a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. 4AD allied itself with the Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...
Group, which included that eponymous label and XL Recordings in the US, but the band's recordings remained distributed through Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. Subsequent releases, however, have been licensed to Rhino/Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, a sister label within Warner Music
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
. 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
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. 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
Toward the Within
Toward the Within is the only official live album of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard's group Dead Can Dance. It contains 15 songs, of which only four appeared on their previous albums, and two of which were later re-recorded and included on Lisa Gerrard's first solo album, The Mirror Pool...
, with video versions on Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
(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
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
. It reached the Billboard 200. Gerrard released her debut solo recording, The Mirror Pool
The Mirror Pool
- External links :* with samples* at Dead-Can-Dance.com...
, and recombined with Perry for the Dead Can Dance studio album, Spiritchaser
Spiritchaser
Spiritchaser is the seventh and last studio album by Dead Can Dance before Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard went their separate ways. It expands on its exploration of world music and like Into the Labyrinth, Spiritchaser was recorded at Quivvy Church, Perry's personal studio in Ireland.The track...
, 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)Dead Can Dance (1981-1998)
Dead Can Dance is four-disc box set, containing three CDs of music spanning Dead Can Dance's career and a DVD of their 1994 video release Toward the Within....
and on the 2-disc compilation Wake (2003). Gerrard teamed with Pieter Bourke
Pieter Bourke
Pieter Bourke is an Australian percussionist, composer, and audio engineer. He has collaborated with Dead Can Dance, and recorded material with ex-Dead Can Dance Lisa Gerrard. He also collaborated with Australian musician David Thrussell , first as part of the latter's band Snog, then just the two...
(Snog
Snog
Snog is a band formed by Australian musician David Thrussell, along with fellow art school friends, Tim McGrath and Julia Bourke, in 1989. The band's music is a fusion of many different styles, including industrial, techno, ambient, experimental, funk and even some of the social commentary of...
, Soma) to issue Duality in April 1998. Perry released Eye of the Hunter
Eye of the Hunter
Eye of the Hunter is the debut solo album by Brendan Perry, previously the male half of the band Dead Can Dance. The album was released by 4AD on 4 October 1999 in the UK and a day later in the US.-Overview:...
in October 1999.
The Show (Record label)
The Show was a company created by Jake Walker, Eric Welsh and Jim Coudal in 2004 which delivered high quality limited edition live concert CD's. The company was successful with musical acts such as The Pixies and Dead Can Dance.-External links:...
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
Brendan Perry
Brendan Michael Perry is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the male half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.-Early life:...
forum on 12 May 2011: "I have been talking with Lisa Gerrard
Lisa Gerrard
Lisa Gerrard is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry....
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."
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.
Discography
- Dead Can DanceDead Can Dance (album)Dead Can Dance is the debut album recorded by Dead Can Dance in 1984. This album differs greatly from later Dead Can Dance releases. The instrumentation consisted of guitars, bass and drums with added percussion and the very distinct sound of the Yang Chin as played by Lisa Gerrard. This album has...
(1984) - Spleen and IdealSpleen and IdealSpleen and Ideal is the second album recorded by Dead Can Dance, released in 1986. The line up continued with Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, Scott Rodger, James Pinker and Peter Ulrich with the addition of Gus Ferguson on Cello...
(1986) - Within the Realm of a Dying SunWithin the Realm of a Dying SunWithin the Realm of a Dying Sun is the third album recorded by Dead Can Dance, by now predominantly the duo Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry along with Peter Ulrich, after the departure of Scott Rodger and James Pinker in 1987....
(1987) - The Serpent's EggThe Serpent's EggThe Serpent's Egg is the fourth album recorded by Dead Can Dance, which comprises Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. It was released in October 1988, and featured the song "The Host of Seraphim" which was later used in the soundtrack of a number of films, including Baraka, Vexille: 2077 Japanese...
(1988) - Aion (1990)
- Into the Labyrinth (1993)
- SpiritchaserSpiritchaserSpiritchaser is the seventh and last studio album by Dead Can Dance before Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard went their separate ways. It expands on its exploration of world music and like Into the Labyrinth, Spiritchaser was recorded at Quivvy Church, Perry's personal studio in Ireland.The track...
(1996)
External links
- Official Dead Can Dance Web site
- Dead Can Dance interviews from the Echoes public radio show