Dead Can Dance, the remarkable musical partnership of Englishman Brendan Perry and Australian Lisa Gerrard, has been sending alternative music fans into paroxyms of delight with the release of their 4AD album Into the Labyrinth, the first album of new material to be released in the U.S.
Released September 14th, Into the Labyrinth has already surpassed sales of 100,000 and debuted at #2 on Billboard's Heatseeker retail chart. The album is among the Top 50 hottest albums in San Francisco and Seattle record stores, with a growing presence in Washington, DC., Denver, Chicago, and Providence. It is also among top selling releases at major Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Austin, and Twin Cities outlets.
On the airplay front, a key Into the Labyrinth track, "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove," is getting substantial airplay on alternative and AAA stations on both coasts as well as the Midwest and Mountain states.
Dead Can Dance also can be heard on the soundtrack to the new film, Baraka, where their original song "The Host of the Seraphim" can be heard. From Into the Labyrinth, "Yulinga", is the duo's new video, which features scenes from the critically acclaimed film. A video for the abovementioned "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove," is currently in the planning stages.
All this comes on the heels of news that Dead Can Dance will tour the U.S. for the first time with fifteen dates beginning October 20. In another remarkable show of the group's appeal, nine of the scheduled performances are already sold out.
Formed in 1981 in Melbourne, Australia, Dead Can Dance have long been staples on the European alternative music scene. They have released six albums on 4AD in the UK, including such acclaimed offerings as Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun, Aion, and A Passage In Time.
"Dead Can Dance functions as a Jungian river of sound and meaning," wrote Greg Fasolino in Creem Magazine, "a lucid dream state bereft oif of modern mundanity, tapped into mythology and symbolism." Anderson Jones, writing in Entertainment Weekly, noted the duo's "Soaring, elegantly realized vocals...buttressed by starkly arranged folk instruments and superb production."
The Dead Can Dance 1993 U.S. tour is as follows:
10/20 Atlanta, GA Roxy
10/22 Washington DC Lisner Aud.
10/24 Montreal, QU Salle Pierre
10/25 Toronto, ON Music Hall
10/27-28 New York, NY Town Hall
10/29 Boston, MA Berklee School
10/30 Philadelphia, PA TLA
11/2 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
11/4 Denver, CO Ogden
11/7 San Francisco, CA Zellerbach
11/8 Los Angeles, CA Royce Hall
11/11 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre
11/12 Vancouver, BC Vogue Theatre
11/15 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
