Dead Can Dance: Anastasis

-- By KCRW Music Librarian and DJ Eric J. Lawrence

Although they have been making music together as Dead Can Dance for over 30 years, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry (the core duo of the band) have worked together only sporadically in the past decade, with merely a couple of compilations, a short tour and handful of limited-edition live albums. But the siren’s call is hard to resist for both band and their dedicated fan base, and so we are blessed with Anastasis, the first all-new studio album from the band in 16 years.

There are no other bands that sound quite like Dead Can Dance, whose scholarly, yet organic mixture of international flavors - from Celtic to Middle Eastern, from African to medieval Europe, and from gothic rock to heady neoclassical - make for a sonic template of world music so unique that it is, frankly, otherworldly. Gerrard’s glossolalia adds magnificently to the mystical mix, much like Dead Can Dance’s former label mates Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser’s vocal do.

The new album easily follows in the footsteps of its ancestors, with maybe an extra ear towards the epical, which is probably only natural for such a triumphant reunion. Thankfully, what once seemed finished has now risen in spectacular fashion, and we all get to dance along.

Anastasis will be available to stream on demand from August 6 through August 13, 2012.