Lisa Gerrard
It is with a warm heart and a big handshake that I welcome you here to take part in a variety of works that have been growing for the past six years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support over the years; I know there are some of you who have been with me from the beginning. I offer special thanks to you for the courage that I have received from you. It has been the direct incentive to maintain faith in what I do. Therefore, I encourage you to stay in contact with the essential goodness and beauty that exists within all people, to help us maintain perspective in these compromising times.

This evening, we will be performing works from "The Mirror Pool," as well as works composed for bouzouki and yang chin by Robert Perry and myself.

I would like to give recognition also to the creative inputs of the instrumentalists, who helped to embellish these works.

I would also like to acknowledge the unseen faces without whom these concerts would not be possible.

Recently, my family experienced the tragic loss of my young brother, Mark Gerrard; it is to him, and his family, Kylie and Jack Gerrard, that I dedicate these concerts.

Pieter Bourke
Pieter is a self-taught percussionist and keyboard player whose interest in rhythm and sound began at an early age. Like drummers the world over, he found rhythm in everyday objects as a child. Beginning with a small electronic drum at age twelve, he has built up a varied collection of percussion instruments from around the globe. His favourites are the Near Eastern Tar (a circular frame drum with a deep resonating sound) and the Egyptian Darabukka (a pear-shaped drum with a fish or synthetic skin stretched on it for a fast, snappy sound).

Pieter Bourke began his recording career with the Australian group 'Eden', of which he was a founding member and songwriter. Additionally, he has written, recorded and performed with industrial noise-maker 'Snog' and worked on numerous remixes for other artists. He first worked with Lisa Gerrard in 1994, touring to Los Angeles for the premiere performances of her solo material, and subsequently performed on the recording of "The Mirror Pool."

Currently, he is a member of the group 'Soma'. Pieter is completing the music for a solo release which will "bring together the rhythmic and atmospheric elements that I am fascinated with." He lives near the beach in Melbourne, Australia with Julianna, Jacob and Bigfoot the cockatoo.

Robert Perry
Robert grew up in New Zealand, England and Ireland and spent the last three years in Spain, where he has been gathering ideas for a future solo record. He has worked with Dead Can Dance since 1987 and is currently working with Kila, an Irish traditional group from Dublin.

He now lives in County Cavan, where he produces flutes, drums and percussive instruments in his workshop resulting in hybrids from designs found during travels through South America, Spain, and Ireland.

John Bonnar
John studied composition and conducting at the University of Wales. John's relationship with Lisa and Brendan of Dead Can Dance began when he invited them to be involved in an orchestra-based work structure called "Echoes of the Cross" which John founded in 1987. During this time, he worked with both Roger and Brian Eno, Michael Brook and John Fox. John worked together with Lisa for four months arranging for orchestra the orchestral works for "The Mirror Pool." In tonight's performance, you will see these works performed in their original state using orchestral samples. John also conducted the live orchestral recordings of these works. John is a composer in his own right, having written numerous works for orchestra, voices and chamber groups.

Rónán Ó Snodaigh
Rónán was born on the first of January 1970 and grew up in an Irish speaking family in Dublin. He began playing the Bodhrán at the age of twelve and has developed a variety of musical expression since. He was an integral part of the "street music scene" that erupted in Dublin in the late 80's and has been a central member of the band "Kila" since they formed in 1985. He was in the Dead Can Dance line up for the "Toward The Within" Tour. He occasionally organises musicians to perform and record his own songs under the name of "Tonnta Ré" and has been involved in a wide variety of rhythm pageants, brightly coloured processions, dance shows and performances.

I believe in diversity
I strive for perfection
and I celebrate natural imperfection

Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis originally studied to be an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He is now a composer working under the project title 'Elija's Mantle;' and has released the compact discs 'Angels of Perversity,' produced by Brendan Perry, 'Remedies in Heresies', and 'Sorrows of Sophia.' This year, Mark has been working on the fourth 'Elija's Mantle' album, to be released next year. The recordings are on the De Nova Da Capo label that he founded in 1993.

The work of 'Elijah's Mantle' apart from musical expression is multi-media, combining the visual arts--film, video, photography, art and design--with literature. This has been attempted in the video 'Philosophy with a Hammer', written and directed by Mark, that was released this year.

At these concerts, Mark will be reciting text and poetry from T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, Mallarmé, Baudelaire and Rimbaud.

Jacek Tuschewski
Jacek Tuschewski performs on tambourine, shakers, drums, and controls the samplers and chants.

Jacek, amongst other things, is a painter, graphic artist and poet. He is also the process of recording an electronic music album with a new assembly called 'um'.

Transparent prayers on the soft mirror carpet
Pulsating heart of a fool
Undermining feeling beginning to pray within your walls
Long ago understanding lived
Now it is gone
How we can't touch our lips, slowly filled with love
There in the distance we see each other through the work of words
The need
The longing
Crippling I can't identify
The passing left us in memories

In the blinding darkness of the light stumbling
only to convert in a mirror's eye

Here in the softness of my carpet
kneeling trying to make prayers from my veins, fly

People Behind the Scenes
Tour Manager: Rob Brenner
Sound Engineers: Jeff Perrin & Paul Allen
Lighting: Jean Luc Jaquinot (Rosko)
Stage Support & Back Line: John Gerrard
Lisa's Costume Design & Assistant: Andrew Hutton

A very special thanks to Brendan Perry and Nanette Gerrard

Programme Design by Chris Bigg / v23
Origination and Printing by Botany Litho, Tonebridge, England.
Printed in England. © 1995 4AD.