On May 8th,\u00a0Brendan Perry<\/a> and\u00a0Lisa Gerrard<\/a>, collectively known as\u00a0Dead Can Dance<\/a>, announced that their first new album since 1996\u2019s Spiritchaser<\/a><\/em> would be released on August 9th, 2012<\/a> (It will also be the kick-off of their world tour<\/a>). Entitled \u201cAnastasis,\u201d the new work\u00a0will be \u201ca spring album to coincide with both natures awakening and the groups subsequent rebirth,\u201d<\/a><\/em> according to Perry. This new album comes after a year of anticipation for hardcore fans, since Perry first revealed the planned return<\/a>, and released a series of free live teaser EPs<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Dead Can Dance claims a devoted international fanbase, they really haven\u2019t received the in-depth critical examination and attention of other bands from their era. This may be partially due to \u00a0being labeled as Goth early in their career, that their idea of a \u201cdance\u201d tune<\/a> is 14th century composition the saltarello<\/a>,\u00a0and the fact that many of the bands directly inspired by them exist in their own tiny niche subgenres<\/a> (they\u2019re like the Velvet Underground of Neoclassical Darkwave). That said, Dead Can Dance were pioneers in incorporating early music, and \u201cworld\u201d music, into their sound, and Gerrard has spawned an entire tribe of\u00a0\u201cexotic-sounding, ululating female singers\u201d<\/a> in epic film sountracks. Further, and of particular interest to my readers, they changed the face of music made by and for modern Pagans.<\/p>\n httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x5twt5oCUTM<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026you must understand that I have never really known how to describe the work as anything other than an inspired reaction to the love of and a desire to communicate an arrow from the heart.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Lisa Gerrard<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n At its inception, popular music made by and for Pagans largely originated from a few limited sources, the folk songs of artists like\u00a0Gwydion Pendderwen<\/a>, bands inspired by British \u201celectric folk\u201d<\/a> acts like Fairport Convention<\/a>, and artists influenced by \u201coccult\u201d themes (real or imagined) in the work of 60s rock acts like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and The Rolling Stones. In time, the New Age music<\/a> ascendancy of the 1980s also became a factor, and you started to find explicitly Pagan artists using synthesizer washes and other\u00a0Music From The Hearts of Space<\/a><\/em>-style flourishes. So it largely remained until the 1990s when a confluence of factors, most prominently the\u00a0Internet\u00a0and the access it provided to music from across the world, helped spawn a new paradigm that took direct influence from the work of Dead Can Dance. This music, distinctly international in tenor, has, in my opinion, become the template of choice for many younger Pagans.<\/p>\n If you look at any music-focused event that draws a large number of Pagans you\u2019ll see the hand of Dead Can Dance\u2019s career at work. Pandemonaeon<\/a> and The RaZor Skyline<\/a> at the recent Hexenfest<\/a> in California,\u00a0Omnia, Wardruna<\/a>, Euzen, and Corvus Corax at Castlefest in the Netherlands<\/a>, and the upcoming FaerieCon in Baltimore<\/a> featuring Faun<\/a> and The Moon and The Nightspirit<\/a>. In addition, recent years have seen a spate of new releases from bands like Seventh Harmonic<\/a>, Atrium Animae<\/a>,\u00a0Rajna<\/a>,\u00a0\u00cdon<\/a>,\u00a0Woodland<\/a>,\u00a0Ataraxia<\/a>, and\u00a0Hexperos<\/a> that take inspiration from Dead Can Dance, mixing in their own Pagan and esoteric beliefs. Dead Can Dance have provided not one, but several musical templates, allowing bands to take inspiration while creating their own unique sounds. It has allowed them to become\u00a0inadvertent\u00a0ancestors to at least two generations of esoteric musical artists.<\/p>\n The two main questions now are what will the new Dead Can Dance album sound like, and what forms will Pagan and Pagan-friendly musics take in the near future. Will \u201cAnastasis\u201d have elements of Perry\u2019s recent solo album \u201cArk,\u201d<\/a> or will it go in a completely unexpected direction? Remember, this is a band that evolved from this<\/a>, to this<\/a>, over the course of their career, so expect some change.\u00a0\u00a0Will this new album have reverberations among the (relatively) younger crop of Pagan artists, or will esoteric\u00a0electronic\u00a0projects like Fever Ray<\/a> or the rising tide of Pagan Metal<\/a> acts\u00a0take a more dominant hand in shaping the future of our community\u2019s music? The answer is still unknown, but I\u2019m excited about the journey to find out.<\/p>\n So mark your calendars for August 9th, and maybe start looking into the many artists Dead Can Dance have had an influence on.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On May 8th,\u00a0Brendan Perry and\u00a0Lisa Gerrard, collectively known as\u00a0Dead Can Dance, announced that their first new album since 1996\u2019s Spiritchaser would be released on August 9th, 2012 (It will also be the kick-off of their world tour). Entitled \u201cAnastasis,\u201d the new work\u00a0will be \u201ca spring album to coincide with both natures awakening and the groups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[3353,2778,3352,575,914,2779,1554],"class_list":["post-9652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-anastasis","tag-brendan-perry","tag-darkwave","tag-dead-can-dance","tag-goth","tag-lisa-gerrard","tag-music"],"yoast_head":"\n