Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance at Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California during the Anastasis tour. Left to right: Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard
Background information
Origin	Melbourne, Australia
Genres	Neoclassical dark wave, world music, ethereal wave, art rock, gothic rock, pagan rock, post-punk (early)
Years active	1981–1998, 2005, 2011–present
Labels	4AD, Warner Bros., Rhino/Atlantic, Rykodisc, PIAS
Associated acts	The Scavengers, The Marching Girls, Junk Logic, Microfilm, Heavenly Bodies, Pieter Bourke
Website	www.deadcandance.com
Members	Lisa Gerrard Brendan Perry
Past members	Paul Erikson Simon Monroe James Pinker Scott Rodger Peter Ulrich

Dead Can Dance is an Australian musical project formed in 1981 in Melbourne by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. The band relocated to London, England, in May 1982. Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance's style as "constructed soundscapes of mesmerising grandeur and solemn beauty; African polyrhythms, Gaelic folk, Gregorian chant, Middle Eastern mantras and art rock."

Having disbanded in 1998, they reunited briefly in 2005 for a world tour and reformed in 2011, releasing a new album (Anastasis) and embarking on several tours.

Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne, Australia in August 1981 with Paul Erikson on bass guitar, Lisa Gerrard (ex-Microfilm) on vocals, Simon Monroe (Marching Girls) on drums and Brendan Perry (also of Marching Girls) on vocals and guitar. Gerrard and Perry were a domestic couple who met as members of Melbourne's Little band scene. In May 1982, the band left Monroe in Australia and moved to London, England, where they signed with alternative rock label 4AD. With the duo, the initial United Kingdom line-up were Paul Erikson and Peter Ulrich.

The group's debut album, Dead Can Dance, was released in February 1984. The artwork, which depicts a ritual mask from New Guinea, "provide[s] a visual reinterpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance", set in a faux Greek typeface. The album featured "drum-driven, ambient guitar music with chanting, singing and howling", and fit in with the ethereal wave style of label mates Cocteau Twins. They followed with a four-track extended play, Garden of the Arcane Delights in August.AllMusic described their early work as "as goth as it gets" (despite the group themselves rejecting the label), while the EP saw them "plunging into a wider range of music and style".