The legendary Australian band Dead Can Dance will perform for the first time in Serbia within the tour: A Celebration – Life and Works from 1980 to 2019. Concert will be held on June 28, at Sava Center, organized by Charm Music. It will also be the only performance on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne in 1980 — Gerrard was 16 and Perry was 19 when they started working together — and they decamped within a few years for London, where they recorded their goth-rock–inflected, self-titled debut. Within a few years, they dispensed with rock all together and started exploring elements of classical music, opera and Greek and Middle Eastern music on brilliant albums like Within the Realm of a Dying Sun and The Serpent’s Egg. By the mid Nineties, when an album like Chant was able to go double platinum at the height of grunge, they reached their commercial peak and their influence reverberates through the works of the Chemical Brothers, Slowdive, Björk and Nine Inch Nails. They’re also tangentially responsible for Europe’s pagan-music movement led by artists like Wardruna and Corvus Corax. They split in the late Nineties, and both pursued solo careers, with Gerrard contributing to the Golden Globe–nominated Gladiator soundtrack, but they reunited briefly in 2005 and permanently in 2011, releasing the excellent Anastasis album a year later.
The duo’s newest LP of unclassifiable music, Dionysus (2018), is Perry’s meditation on the mythological deity and what he stands for. Perry and Gerrard, 57, sing in made-up languages, explore quixotic Mediterranean sounds and generally bliss out with abandon. The record contains seven movements, like a work of classical music, structured into two acts with titles that suggest images like “Dance of the Bacchantes,” “The Invocation” and “Liberator of Minds.” It’s unapologetically heady (its catalyst was Nietzsche after all) but, like all Dead Can Dance records, it’s also intoxicating.
Special guest at the concert will be outstanding German percussionist David Kuckhermann, who has acquired his knowledge from numerous teachers (Glen Velez, Behnam Samani, Ramesh Shotham, Ustad Fayaz Khan …). Over time, he developed his own style by linking the legacy of the battering techniques of Iran, India, Turkey, Europe, Egypt and Africa. He collaborated with numerous musicians such as Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Levent Yildirim, Ahmad Al-Khatib, etc. He also played on the previous Dead Can Dance tour, and then played with Lisa Gerard at her concerts.
Do not miss this unique opportunity to hear this unconventional band live. The concert is almost sold out, while remaining tickets you can purchase at eventim.rs.
