Dead Can Dance - Anastasis
In English, the Greek word "anastasis" is literally translated as "resurrection." The definition is apt as the title to Dead Can Dance's reunion offering, their first recording of new studio material since 1996's Spiritchaser. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry established a well-deserved global reputation for pushing boundaries in popular music. Coming from the fringes of the gothic music world on the iconic 4AD label, they brought a sense of near classical discipline (and pretension) into their sound. They incorporated cutting-edge production techniques and also folded in -- mostly accurately -- several international musical traditions; combined, they created a deeply atmospheric, lushly textured, dramatic brand of post-gothic pop. Self-produced and released by PIAS, Anastasis features eight songs, and clocks in at just under an hour. The trace elements will be very familiar to DCD fans. In fact, Anastasis can be called, for the most apart, an album of tropes; it is much more a tour through much of the band's previous history than an exercise in delivering anything new.
This is surprising given Gerrard's vast soundtrack experience and Perry's solo albums, various collaborative contributions, and film work. The musical tenets here derive from near-Eastern Mediterranean sources (mainly Greek and Turkish folk forms), and some from the various nations of North Africa. Immediately noticeable is Perry's voice (which holds forth on the fine meta-mystical opener "Children of the Sun" and the hollowed-out bliss of "Opium"); it is deeper, richer, more restrained in its delivery, but more powerful because of it. He and Gerrard rarely sing on the same tune. For Gerrard, her instantly recognizable instrument shines forth on "Agape" and "Kiko," with their Arab-scaled strings, dumbeks, ouds, and cymbaloms. The set's finest moment is "Return of the She-King," whose drones, and the processional multi-tracked vocals by Gerrard, are matched by strings, deep tom-toms, swooping ethereal guitars, ouds, and numerous instruments. Perry joins in at the end, and their twin voices meet in a gauzy dexterity and contrast amid a swirl of neo-classical strings.
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La Nef - Music for Joan the Mad
The daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile and the mother of King Charles V, Joan the Mad (Juana la Loca in Spanish) was a Spanish queen who lived from 1479-1555. She is believed to have suffered from mental illness -- possibly, she experienced what is now called schizophrenia -- and was confined to the historic castle at Tordesillas. A fascinating CD, Music for Joan the Mad was inspired by the life of the Spanish queen, who was believed to be a major music lover. La Nef didn't claim that Music for Joan the Mad was an exact re-creation of Spanish music from the 15th and 16th centuries -- the Quebec-based ensemble takes its share of liberties. On this enriching CD (which contains Spanish and French lyrics), listeners will hear elements of both European/Catholic and Middle Eastern music. In fact, Music for Joan the Mad is full of what is known as "modal" or "scalar" playing -- Arabic, Jewish, Armenian, Greek, Indian, Turkish, and North African music are all modal-oriented, and in the 1960s, modality was embraced by such jazz innovators as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pharoah Sanders, and Yusef Lateef. This album takes us back to a time when a lot of European folk was greatly influenced by Jews and Arabs, both of whom were violently forced out of Spain in the name of Christianity. Music for Joan the Mad is an enriching gem that lovers of world music should make a point of obtaining.
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Philip Pickett - The Pilgrimage to Santiago
The Pilgrimage to Santiago is the first of Philip Pickett and the New London Consort's forays into the mostly twelfth century songs associated with pilgrims to the shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. For sources, Pickett reviewed a number of Spanish manuscripts, including the Codex Calixtinus, Las Huelgas, Cantigas de Santa Maria, and the Llibre Vermell, searching for songs that specifically mentioned Santiago de Compostela. There are accounts and iconography extant that portrays the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela as a merrily music-making bunch, and Pickett considered such visual and documentary clues in shaping these interpretations. A former member of the Early Music Consort of London and Musica Reservata, Pickett is well informed in the challenges facing anyone inclined to interpret the Cantigas; they are all monophonic, and several consist of long, unwieldy texts divided into as many as 15 verses, if not more. Do you choose the best four or five verses and focus on those, or do all 15? Pickett utilizes both approaches, presenting somewhat condensed versions of certain Cantigas and, particularly in the case of "De grad'a Santa Maria," which runs nearly 20 minutes, going for the long version. As each verse is varied a little bit in some way, it never gets boring; in that particular piece, Pickett calls for a much larger complement of singers and instrumentalists than is usual for an early music group, in keeping with statuary he saw at Santiago Cathedral.
Other pieces are more modest in presentation, and in these settings, the voice of Pickett's collaborator Catherine Bott is key; the freshness and rhythmic brio of her singing helps focus the New London Consort in equal measure to Pickett's own direction. The Pilgrimage to Santiago remains one of the New London Consort's most extraordinary achievements and sets new standards for the performances of Cantigas.
Reviews edited from: allmusic.com :)
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