[Zealot261]

I just picked up Duality and I must say, she simply has a stunning voice.
Are there any other artists that are fairly close to her?

Anyone else a fan, all I can say is that I am now. The range of her vocal expressions and control is unbelieveable.

 

[Davey]

Another to try if you enjoy the middle eastern ambient music of Dead Can Dance is the similar sounding Vas. Their third album on Narada, In the Garden of Souls, is very nice and a great recording. Like Lisa Gerrard, the singer has an incredible voice and also sings in an imaginary language. I think she might even have more range than Lisa but is also very expressive.


Amazon.com
On their third album, In the Garden of Souls, Vas doesn't so much extend their sound as go deeper within it. Singer Azam Ali continues singing in tongues; she's an intoxicating priestess who invites you into terrain that's both sacred and sensual. Her voice is framed by her own hammered dulcimer and the percussion of Greg Ellis. He draws on a trap set that replaces tom-toms, snare drums, and cymbals with djembes, dumbeks, udu drums, chimes, and bells to surround Ali with a seductive swirl of throbbing percussion, while Cameron Stone adds sinewy, raga-like cello lines. You can hear the influence of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen's medieval chants on pieces like "Inamorata" and "Beyond Despair," while "Inward Coil" builds from a plaintive folk tune into a classical crescendo. Azam Ali's voice is a stunning instrument, hovering between the ululations of Iran, where she was born, and the extended, note-bending melodiousness of India, where she was raised. In a language of the imagination, she's revealing a glimpse of heaven. --John Diliberto

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...e&s=music&st=*

 

[Dixie Flatline]

She's my one of my favorite female artists -- I haven't really found anyone close to her, but I'll have to check out Davey's recommendations. If your first experience of her is Duality, though, here's some of her other work I'd recommend to you:

The Mirror Pool (solo album)
Aion (Dead Can Dance)
The two Gladiator soundtracks (she does a lot of work with Hans Zimmer) -- there's a track on the second soundtrack called "Rome is the Light" which I find absolutely amazing.

She's also being doing a lot of movie soundtrack work lately -- Whale Rider, Tears of the Sun, Man on Fire...