Dead Can Dance consists of Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard.
Dead Can Dance is a band that comprises Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. Formed in Melbourne in 1981 and initially based in Australia, it disbanded temporarily in 1998 and has reunited for a world tour in 2005.
After being relatively unsuccessful in Australia, Gerrard and Perry moved to London, where after one year they signed up to alternative rock label 4AD, a legendary label on the alternative music scene, where it became one of the most important bands on the label. They continued to work closely together, until later in the 1990s when they started to grow apart. Gerrard returned to Australia, while Perry moved to Ireland, where he bought an old church, Quivy Church, where he lives and works. It is speculated that the distance between the members was an influence in their eventual break-up, although Perry himself said that distance helped in maintaining a certain individual freedom in creativity.
Assigning a musical genre to Dead Can Dance is difficult, as its style was particularly eclectic. However, its early work could be considered " goth". In their later work, after The Serpent's Egg, Dead Can Dance would take as sources ancient or foreign music from around the world, with Gerrard singing glossolalia, giving it a very distinctive style ( world music). As a result its later albums sound quite different from the first three. It has been considered to be ethereal goth or dark world music.
The name "Dead Can Dance" is often misleading. Although this group is quite popular among the goth sub-culture, the name simply means putting life back into something that is dead, or no longer in use. The instruments that are used are either ancient, forgotten or no longer desirable to most musicians. Another understanding of the name is the idea of giving a life to the inanimate, as Perry said:
