Michael Stearns – Ancient Leaves Label: Infinite Fog Productions – IF-93LP Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered Country: Russia Released: 07 Jul 2019 Style: Ambient
In 1975, Michael moved from Tucson to Los Angeles to study with Emilie Conrad at the Continuum Studio. Emilie had ‘live’ music for her ‘movement meditation’ classes, and Michael began performing with Fred Stofflet, Gary David, and Don Preston. Ancient Leaves (25:43) was Michael’s first album, recorded in 1976/77 with a Mini Moog synthesizer and a Finish lap harp (Kantele) onto 4 track tape. To the other instruments, Michael added Emilie chanting, an ascending choir with Susan Harper and Linda Olsen vocalists, Gregorian Chants and a night ambience recorded in the desert outside of Tucson, Arizona, his hometown. It was initially released on LP and cassette. The ‘B’ side, Elysian E (23:13) was performed with an Arp String Ensemble played through an MXR digital delay, one of the first, then slowed to half speed. To this he added Moog and EML synthesizers, The Beam and his voice.
Lisa Gerrard & Jules Maxwell – Burn (Vinyl, LP) Label: Atlantic Curve – AC003-1 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, White Country: Europe Released: May 7, 2021 Style: Darkwave, New Wave, Experimental, Neo-Classical
La enigmática Lisa Gerrard en colaboración con Jules Maxwell, ambos implicados en Dead Can Dance, llevan trabajando en este proyecto desde hace más de 7 años. Esta colaboración lleva el nombre de “Burn” y cuenta con la producción de James Chapman de Maps.
Tracklist
Heleali (The Sea Will Rise) Noyalain (Burn) Deshta (Forever) Aldavyeem (A Time To Dance) Orion (The Weary Huntsman) Keson (Until My Strength Returns) Do So Yol (Gather The Wind)
Lisa Germaine Gerrard (/dʒəˈrɑːrd/; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique (glossolalia), influenced by her childhood spent in multicultural areas of Melbourne. She has a dramatic contralto voice and has a vocal range of three octaves.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Gerrard played a pivotal role in the city’s Little Band scene and fronted post-punk group Microfilm before co-founding Dead Can Dance in 1981. With Perry, she explored numerous traditional and modern styles, laying the foundations for what became known as neoclassical dark wave. She sings sometimes in English and often in a unique language that she invented. In addition to singing, she is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer). Gerrard’s first solo album, The Mirror Pool, was released in 1995. She has been involved in a wide range of projects, starting her first collaborative album in 1998 with Pieter Bourke, and then with various artists throughout her career, who comprised Patrick Cassidy, Klaus Schulze, Hans Zimmer, among others. She has scored numerous award-winning motion picture soundtracks.
As of 2020, Gerrard has released four solo albums and collaborated on sixteen albums. She composed and contributed the scores to more than 48 movies. She received a Golden Globe Award for the music score to the 2000 film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer. She wrote the score of Balibo which went on to win an ARIA award for Best Original Soundtrack and an APRA Screen music award for Best feature film score. Overall she has won 11 awards receiving 23 nominations. Gerrard has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice…
The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices Featuring Lisa Gerrard – Shandai Ya / Stanka (Vinyl LP | Black) Label: Prophecy PRO 243 LP Format: Vinyl, 12″, EP Country: Europe Released: 17 Apr 2020 Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Otherworldly female vocals from extraordinary performers have always been the trademark of world-famous choir ensemble The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices (formerly known as «Les Mystères Des Voix Bulgares»). After an almost 20-year hiatus due to the death of producer Marcel Cellier, the choir released its critically acclaimed comeback «BooCheeMish» in 2018 together with esteemed guest vocalist Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance), combining magnificent vocals from various stylistic backgrounds and traditional Bulgarian instruments with modern elements like beatboxing. The ensemble and its host of guests embarked on a successful tour in 2018 and 2019, performing in renowned concert venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Netherlands or L’Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, Belgium.
Summer 2020 sees a continuation of the choir’s live activities in Europe, and the new 7-track EP «Shandai Ya / Stanka» presents the strongest songs from «BooCheeMish» in even more refined versions alongside two exclusive tracks – an impressive live rendition of Gerrard’s solo composition ‘Rite Of Passage’ from a concert in Warsaw, Poland and ‘Zaidi Sluntse’, a collaboration between the choir and beatbox world champion SkilleR, marrying vocal skills that could not be more contrastive to great effect.
Tracklist: 1. Shandai Ya (Version) 2. Stanka (Choir Version) 3. Zaidi Sluntse (Previously unreleased) 4. Mome Malenko (Radio Edit) 5. Rano Ranila (Version) 6. Rite Of Passage (Live in Warsaw) 7. Shandai Ya
