Little music to share

As I’ve said a million times, Lisa Gerrard is a goddess and Dead Can Dance was one of the most amazing groups of performers that has ever graced the planet. Formed in 1981, they have produced some of the most beautiful music that has ever been created.

Watch this and tell me you don’t agree:

Rakim

---

Of course most of what she’s written and performed over the last 10 or 15 years hasn’t been in any particular language. She’s very fond of singing in tongues, and well I think the emotion that she is able to convey in the sounds that come from her voice is absolutely moving beyond words. I had the great fortune of seeing her live last year, and it was a totally heavenly experience. The emotions that i felt sitting there in the energy she projected from the stage was absolutely overwhelming.  If there is a God, being in her presence, and experiencing the energy coming from her when she performs is probably as close as any human could ever come to being near the divine.

---

Here’s another older piece from Dead Can Dance that is rather striking as well. There’s just something primal and moving about it, draws from the soul. The imagery in the video ties into the emotion in her voice so well it’s hypnotic to watch. It touches on the innate need of humans to feel a part of the mystical energy that surrounds us in the mere fact of our existence. Word of warning on this one, there is footage of various tribal dances from a number of different “primitive” cultures where there is a bit of nudity involved in their daily lives. Just think National Geographic type footage if you chose to watch it.

Yulunga

---

The next piece shows the pain that is felt by so many people around the world, even to this day. In her voice you can feel the pain and sadness of all of the people in the video footage that ranges from whole villages of people living on what they can scrape together from the garbage dumps in India, to the poor inner city homeless, to the sadness in the eyes of prostitutes condemed to sell not only their bodies but their souls simply to survive. All of them with the same things in common, the attempt at surviving in the harshest and most hollow and lonely places in humanity. Lisa’s voice draws you into their pain and let’s you feel what it is that beats in their hearts as they struggle to survive on a daily basis.

The Host of Seraphim

---

This piece touches on the pure power of the human spirit and the energy that drive our souls. The raw emotion of Lisa’s voice as she’s singing from the very depths of her being mixed with the rythmic beats driving the song will absolutely make you feel the raw energy that makes us human.

Cantara

---

This particular piece has a bit of an interview with Lisa from 1993, where she explains a little bit about why she sings in tongues rather than traditional languages. This is very close to what it was like seeing her live. She actually performed this piece when I saw her, and watching her on the stage, everything around me blurred into a sort of tunnel vision. It was almost as if my soul was being drawn from my body and being consumed by where she “was” on the stage. I could almost feel my essence slowly ebbing it’s way into the light surrounding her and becoming  enveloped in her voice. A few times that night when I saw her at the Park West for my birthday last year, I cried because it was just so beautiful of an experience. Hell even writing this and listening and watching it is bringing a tear to my eye. Her music and soul is so beautiful that one can’t help but become lost in her music and her voice for the duration of the time she graces you with the divinity of the sounds.

Sanvean

 

---

Her music touches upon the same emotions I used to draw upon when I actually wrote poetry long ago. Over the years I’ve found myself becoming more disconnected from my “soul” and emotional being and lost the ability to really put my essence into a piece of writing. It was a good release for me at one time in my life, but it also started to destroy me, dwelling in those dark places for such long periods of time. The music of Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard has helped me come out of those places, but not forget that they are still a part of me to some extent. I do hope I get to see her perform again one day. I would absolutely die to actually meet her and try to understand her or Brendan Perry. I completely missed their reunion tour a few years ago. The first time in 10 years, and probably last time they will ever perform together. I wish I had gotten to experience that at least once in my life.There was a documentary done on her after she won the Golden Globe for her work on the Gladiator Soundtrack, here’s the trailer:She’s done a number of other soundtracks for many movies you probably didn’t even know that she was behind the music for including, Ali, Blackhawk Down, Whale Rider, and Mission Impossible 2. Her music has also been used for numerous documentaries.

~ by g0thicicecream on February 14, 2008.