* En anglais uniquement
After the breakup of
Dead Can Dance, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
Brendan Perry collaborated with friends like
Hector Zazou (on his 1998 Lights in the Dark album) and former bandmate
Peter Ulrich (whose Pathways and Dawns
Perry co-produced and arranged). During the late '90s he began teaching percussion workshops in Afro-Cuban and African Manding styles out of his Quivvy Church home and studio in Belturbet, County Cavan (
Perry's mother's home county), Ireland. These workshops culminated in the creation of a community-based samba school called The Salamanders. His first solo album,
Eye of the Hunter, was released in 1999 on 4AD, his longtime label. In 2003,
Perry oversaw the creation of an international samba festival in Belturbet. In 2005, he and
Lisa Gerrard briefly re-formed
Dead Can Dance for a limited-run farewell tour with a 40-piece orchestra. While they performed their classic material, they also premiered two new songs, "Babylon" and "Crescent." Both of these selections were later recorded for
Ark,
Perry's 2010 solo album; it was released in the United States in mid-2011. In 2012,
Dead Can Dance released
Anastasis, their first studio album in 16 years. Over the next year-and-a half, they toured the globe. In 2013, the band announced the sale of
Perry's Quivvy Church Studio in preparation for a move to (and new studio in) France.
Gerrard continued with her solo and soundtrack work while
Perry built the studio and the pair planned a studio offering. In 2017, he served as the frontman for guitarist
Olivier Mellano's
No Land project, that explored the overlaps between a host of modern musical genres, new music, and the music of Breton Pipe Bands, and blurred the lines of other folk traditions.
Mellano enlisted not only
Perry but the 30 musicians of
Bagad' Cesson for the recording. The finished album was issued in November. ~ Heather Phares