Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

Formed in Australia in the early-80s by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, Dead Can Dance had veered away from the punk explosion towards a more non-conformist style. But finding the music scene unreceptive they moved to London, landed a record deal with 4AD and embarked on a career with the label that would last 17 years. Highly respected artists with a loyal global fanbase, Gerrard and Perry consistently made music full of integrity and passion. Both immensely talented vocalists - Gerrard with her inimitable, mesmeric style and Perry's haunting baritone - they were also gifted, instinctive musicians and their melding of traditional instruments with samplers created a bridge between ancient and modern music.

4AD are finally reissuing all the albums the band released on the label on vinyl. With three recently back in print (Dead Can Dance, Spleen And Ideal, and Into The Labyrinth), the next three will be Garden Of The Arcane Delights (which is being pressed as a double LP to also include both the band's John Peel Sessions), Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun and Toward The Within, all coming out in November 2016.

Dead Can Dance issued their third album Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun in the Summer of 1987, showing both a continued maturity in their sound and rise in their popularity. Recorded during an intense period of musical and personal growth for the band, the album's 8 songs are split equally between the duo with the first half being sung by Brendan and the second Lisa. At the time, Q Magazine described the album as combining "superb voice, ethereal church choirs, sweeping strings and a brochure of ethnic music: Middle Eastern, Indian, Moorish, anywhere but London's East End where the couple resided." The album's cover only adds to the album's aura of mystery with a haunting photograph of the family grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris of famed French biologist François-Vincent Raspail.

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