Having disbanded in 1998, they reunited briefly in 2005 for a world tour and reformed in 2011, releasing a new album (Anastasis) and embarking on several tours.
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 (also of Marching Girls) on vocals and guitar. Gerrard and Perry were a couple who met as members of Melbourne's little band scene. In May 1982, the band left Monroe in Australia and moved to London, England, where they signed with alternative rock label 4AD. With the duo, the initial United Kingdom line-up were Paul Erikson and Peter Ulrich.
The group's debut album, Dead Can Dance, was released in February 1984. The artwork, which depicts a ritual mask from New Guinea, "provide a visual reinterpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance", set in a faux Greek typeface. The album featured "drum-driven, ambient guitar music with chanting, singing and howling", and fit in with the ethereal wave style of label mates Cocteau Twins. They followed with a four-track extended play, Garden of the Arcane Delights in August. AllMusic described their early work as "as goth as it gets" (despite the group themselves rejecting the label), while the EP saw them "plunging into a wider range of music and style".
A shift in sound followed for the Spleen and Ideal album, with more emphasis on strings, brass and drones being used. A quasi spiritual element also emerged on this album, notably on the opening tracks "De Profundis" and "Ascension". Its worth noting that around this time Lisa and Brendan had been doing tours of European Cathedrals, absorbing the ambience which in turn was reflected in the work.
The highlights of the bands career followed with the genre defining album Within The Realm of a Dying Sun, featuring fan favorite "Cantara", which is where the bands Arabic and World music influences began to appear, and the double whammy of "Summoning of the Muse" and "Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers)." Critics at the time were undecided about the album, mainly due to the fact that the pieces were split according to the vocals. Brendan had the first side of the album, where Lisa took over for the latter half.
The Serpent's Egg was the next album and built on the premise set by the previous album, although the album is slightly uneven in quality and a short listen at around 40 minutes. The album is redeemed by the opening and closing pieces "The Host of Seraphim", and Perry's epic "Ullyses".
For the next album Aion, the band slipped back several centuries and recreated working medieval instruments such as the Sackbut, Viol and Hurdy Gurdy for the distinctly Medieval flavor. Included on the album is "Song of the sibyl" a text from 14th century Spain and now a live favorite. Another text appears in the song "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book".
Into the Labyrinth was the follow up album and was the album that saw Brendan mastering the use of samples and synthesizers and also the album that brought the band's music to American audiences selling over a million copies worldwide. The track "The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove" was played across on college radio and was instrumental in the albums success.
Spiritchaser was the seventh studio album for the band and brought about an abrupt upturn in musical style, instead of drawing on the historical past the band drew upon South American and African influences which gave the album a very rhythmic ambience. Considered by some to be the bands weakest album, it features highlights such as the percussive "Nierika" which was the most played track on American college radio for that year, and the epic 9 minute trance inducing "Indus".
A 3 CD retrospective simply called 1981-1998 was issued by 4AD and compiled a comprehensive overview of the bands career, and provided diehard fans with the only finished track from the Spiritchaser follow-up sessions called "The Lotus Eaters".
As a live band is probably where Dead Can Dance have gained their reputation. To put it simply, they were phenomenal. The concerts often featured many improvised pieces that to date have never been recorded in the studio. A live album entitled Toward the Within was released in 1994 and allowed fans unfortunate enough to have not attended concerts the chance to hear a few of these songs. A companion video/DVD of the concert was also released allowing people to see these highly ethereal concerts.
After Dead Can Dance ceased to be a functioning band both Perry and Gerrard embarked upon solo careers. To date, Brendan has released one solo album The Eye of the Hunter and has completed work on a new album, 'Ark', to be released in June 2010, whilst Lisa has been more prolific but with mixed results, releasing two solo albums The Mirror Pool and The Silver Tree. Lisa has also collaborated with other artists, namely Pieter Bourke of the band Soma and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy on the respective albums Duality and Immortal Memory. Lisa has also become a sought after soundtrack artist too after a wave of publicity for the Ridley Scott film Gladiator and continues to release work on a regular basis including soundtrack work on Ali, Layer Cake, and Whale Rider. Peter Ulrich, former percussionist of the band has also released two solo albums, Pathways and Dawns and more recently, Enter the Mysterium.
A series of 31 reunion concerts took place in 2005 in both Europe and North America including two memorable sell out concerts at The Hollywood Bowl and Radio City accompanied by 40 piece orchestras. Many of these concerts were professionally recorded and released as a double CD.
In late 2011, the band announced a reunion World Tour, in order to promote their new album, fittingly titled Anastasis, as it was released on August 9, 2012, 16 years after the group's previous album. Anastasis was well received by critics and is also the first album of the band not released by 4AD Records.
The name "Dead Can Dance" is often misleading. Although this group is quite popular among the goth sub-culture with the name appearing to be inspired by the Danse macabre allegory, it should instead be interpreted as 'giving life to something that was previously inanimate' as Perry said:
"The album artwork [of our self titled first album], a ritual mask from New Guinea, attempted to provide a visual reintrepretation of the meaning of the name "Dead Can Dance." The mask, though once a living part of a tree is dead; nevertheless it has, through the artistry of its maker, been imbued with a life force of its own. To understand why we chose the name, think of the transformation of inanimacy to animacy.... Think of the processes concerning life from death and death into life. So many people missed the inherent symbolism, and assumed that we must be 'morbid gothic types,' a mistake we deplored and deplore...".
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Tell Me About the Forest
Dead Can Dance Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Up ahead there lies your road
And your conscience walks beside you
It's the best friend you'll ever know
And the past is now your future
It bears witness to your soul
Make sure that the love you offer up
For the wind cries of late
In the whispering grass
Our way of life is held
In the spinning wheels of chance
I believe in a way of long ago
And the sounds I believe rose our glow
And we're changing our ways
Yes, we are taking on different roads
Tell me more about the forest
That you once called home
For the wind cries of late
In the whispering leaves
And the sun will turn to waste
The heavens we build above
Father, teach your children
To treat our mother well
If we give her back her diamonds
She will offer up her pearl
We must sing her creation song
Jeune du monde
Invoke the spirits that feed us
This dreaming takes too long
But I'm not bitter, no, I'm surviving
To face the world, to raise the future
So why don't you tell me, come on and tell me
About the world you left behind
Can you tell me?
The song "Tell Me About the Forest" by Dead Can Dance is a plea for introspection and preservation wrapped in poetry. The song is about departure and moving on, but also about respecting the past and learning from it. The lyrics start with a goodbye to a sister, who is encouraged to listen to her conscience and be mindful of the love she gives. The lines "And the past is now your future / It bears witness to your soul" remind us that we cannot escape our past, and that our decisions will shape our future. The song emphasizes the importance of cherishing nature and treating the Earth with reverence. The phrase "Father, teach your children / To treat our mother well" is an invocation to care for the planet and to recognize that it is not an endless resource to exploit, but a precious gift that needs to be protected.
The song has an ethereal and mysterious quality, with its haunting vocals and sparse instrumentation. The lyrics are full of symbolism and metaphors, which invite the listener to reflect and make connections to their own lives. The song reminds us that our actions have consequences and that we have a responsibility to care for the planet and for each other. It encourages us to look inward and to be mindful of the kind of world we want to create.
Line by Line Meaning
Farewell, now, my sister
Goodbye, my sister
Up ahead there lies your road
You have a path to follow
And your conscience walks beside you
Your inner self will guide you
It's the best friend you'll ever know
Your conscience will always be there for you as a true friend
And the past is now your future
Your previous experiences shape your future
It bears witness to your soul
Your past experiences have made an impression on your soul
Make sure that the love you offer up
Spread love
Does not fall on barren soil
But offer it to people who can receive it
For the wind cries of late
The wind is blowing hard these days
In the whispering grass
We hear it amongst the grasses
Our way of life is held
Our way of life is determined
In the spinning wheels of chance
Based on the dice roll of chance and circumstance
I believe in a way of long ago
I believe in an ancient way of life
And the sounds I believe rose our glow
And the sounds we produced made us shine
And we're changing our ways
We are changing, evolving
Yes, we are taking on different roads
We are going separate ways
Tell me more about the forest
Tell me about your home
That you once called home
The home that you once knew
For the wind cries of late
The wind is still blowing hard these days
In the whispering leaves
We hear it amongst the leaves
And the sun will turn to waste
The sun will eventually die out
The heavens we build above
The things that we create to control our fate
Father, teach your children
Dad, teach your kids
To treat our mother well
To be respectful to our planet
If we give her back her diamonds
If we fix our mistakes
She will offer up her pearl
The earth will reward us
We must sing her creation song
We must sing praises of our planet
Jeune du monde
Young people of the world
Invoke the spirits that feed us
Let's connect with the spirits that sustain us
This dreaming takes too long
We can't just dream, we need to act
But I'm not bitter, no, I'm surviving
I'm not resentful, I'm still going
To face the world, to raise the future
To confront the world and secure a positive future
So why don't you tell me, come on and tell me
So what's the story? Please share it with me
About the world you left behind
Tell me about the world that you've moved on from
Can you tell me?
Will you share it with me?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BRENDAN MICHAEL PERRY, LISA GERMAINE GERRARD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind