DEAD CAN DANCE PENUMBRA and ADVENT

DEAD CAN DANCE – PENUMBRA and ADVENT On this date in 1984, DEAD CAN DANCE were in session on the John Peel Radio One show (July 1984). On stage, DEAD CAN DANCE were a beguiling and spectral mix of ancient European melodies, Gaelic folk rhythms, Middle Eastern mantras and exotic instruments. Adept at mining the past for its poetic verse, DCD were able to craft these mystical passages into beautiful gothic futures. Both core members, Melburnians Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard brought out different elements in the overall shape of the sound. Lisa’s striking vocals, sirenesque becoming rhapsodic, with Perry providing the atmospheric context for this singular voice. By the end of 1983, the band had recorded a John Peel session and the eponymous debut album, Dead Can Dance, recorded with programmer James Pinker and bassist Scott Rodger who replaced Paul Erikson. Much of the material here was inspired by Gerrard and Perry’s cycling tour of Gothic cathedrals, one they’d embarked soon after arriving in Britain. The couple had a natural affinity for spaces that would bring out the subtlety of their work and the acoustic abilities of cathedral architecture were ideal. For their second and final Peel session, DCD recorded four tracks: FLOWERS OF THE SEA from their then-current EP ‘Garden Of The Arcane Delights’, PENUMBRA, PANACEA and CARNIVAL OF LIGHT also from that debut EP. From the session, the hypnotic PENUMBRA (followed by a live version of the elevating ADVENT).