Biography

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, Rovi