Dead Can Dance – A Fascinating British-Australian Musical Duo

Victor Rouă0 comment

Dead Can Dance (known for short as DCD) is a fascinating and great British-Australian musical duo consisting of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. The two musicians have been performing together since 1981, disbanding in 1998, briefly reuniting in 2005, and performing together once again since 2011 onwards. Their captivating music is a very interesting mixture of neoclassical dark wave, world ambient, art rock, avant-garde, and, early on, both gothic rock and post-punk. The enthralling musical melting pot of Dead Can Dance was quite accurately described by Ian McFarlane, an Australian music historian, more specifically that it contains ‘African polyrhythms, Gaelic folk, Gregorian chant, Middle Eastern music, mantras, and art rock’. I would also add, if I may, catchy Aboriginal vibes as well. Aside from being a wonderful vocalist, Lisa Gerrard can also played on certain percussion instruments and on the Yangqin (a Chinese dulcimer). Brendan Perry is a multi-instrumentalist who can play on guitar, bass guitar, hurdy-gurdy, keyboards, bouzouki, mandolin, low whistle, hammered dulcimer, and certain percussion instruments. Lisa represents the Australian side of this fascinating musical duo (given the fact that she was born in Melbourne) while Brendan is the English/British side (given the fact that he’s from Whitechapel, London).

Dead Can Dance performing live in München, Germany in 2005. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (CC0 licence, therefore available in the public domain)

The duo was founded in Melbourne, Australia, but relocated to London, England in 1982. Throughout the passage of time, the British-Australian duo collaborated with other musicians. Notable musicians who were part of Dead Can Dance in the past are Paul Erikson, Simon Monroe, James Pinker, Scott Rodger, Richard Yale, Peter Ulrich, John Bonnar.

The discography of the band consists of 9 studio albums, the first one released in 1984 while the last one in 2018. My all-time most favourite studio album by this band/duo is Spiritchaser which was released back in 1996. The respective studio album perfectly encapsulates what I’ve been interested in rock music for quite a while, namely spirituality or spirituality-related themes if you will. Lisa Gerrard sings in her own made up language. I initially thought she sings in what is known as ‘light language’, but a quick search on Quora proved me otherwise (regardless, her made up language still seems pretty close to me to what is known as ‘light language’). Either way, her voice is definitely very beautiful, elegant, at times mysterious, partially giving the listener an eerie (in a positive manner, that is) and even supernatural or otherworldly feeling to the duo’s music. The very same can be definitely said about Brendan Perry’s voice.

Aside from the 9 studio albums released to date, the band also has 2 EPs (i.e. extended plays), 2 live albums, 4 compilations, 9 singles, and 1 video album. The main discography of the band is as follows (solely studio 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)
  • Spiritchaser (1996)
  • Anastasis (2012)
  • Dionysus (2018)

Below you can listen to some of my most favourite songs from their discography. Thank you very much for your time, attention, and readership! All the best!

Documentation sources and external links:

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