THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
SHE SPORTS braided hair, bee-stung lips and skin that apparently has never been hit by the sun.
He looks like a mature hippie left over from the '70s, a dark, brooding look contradicted by his broad Irish smile.
Together, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry are Dead Can Dance, and they've recorded a series of best-selling albums that have established them as cult symbols approaching the mystic.
``Toward the Within,'' a film record of a live concert the group performed at the Mayfair Theater in Santa Monica, Calif., was the hit of the World Film Festival in Montreal last fall. About 8,000 people crowded into Montreal's outdoor Hors Concours, sitting on concrete steps and in the street as the movie flashed on a huge outdoor screen above them. The show single-handedly took some of the starch out of the renowned film festival.
The film arrives in Norfolk at screenings tonight and Saturday at the Naro Expanded Cinema. The program is a mixture of Anglo-Celtic music, medieval liturgical chants and Middle Eastern dance music. It's a sound that has established the two singers as international mystery figures.
Lisa Gerrard is by far the more charismatic, both vocally and visually, of the two, but she wears her goddess aura with careful distance. It has been said that she goes into a trance during her concerts and that an ``outside'' force takes over.
``Yes,'' she said, ``that does happen, in a way. Because people are desperately trying to find a way to release themselves from their bodies, they are inspired when they see you are able to escape momentarily through music. They think `How did you get out?' The answer is very simple. Let the language take over. We have the ability to create a dialogue that enables us to travel to places more beautiful than we were ever promised.''
OK, Lisa, but if you're totally out of it, how can you re-create this every night when you're on the road?
``We do very few live concerts but, when we do, each one is an event - never something that is really planned. There is a spontaneity involved, but I'm not out of control. I know exactly what's going on. I'm not losing it.''
The two have been recording for 15 years and have turned out five albums. The concert movie was made to promote their album ``Into the Labyrinth.''
The two singers, who are supported by five musicians, seldom see each other when they are not singing. He lives in Ireland and she in Australia. ILLUSTRATION: DENNIS KEELEY
Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance have established
themselves as cult symbols.
JUST THE FACTS
What: ``Toward the Within''
Who: A film starring Dead Can Dance, featuring singers Lisa
Gerrard and Brendan Perry
When: Tonight at 9, Saturday at 11:45 p.m., Naro Expanded Cinema
in Norfolk
by CNB