Toward the Within

Last updated

Toward the Within
Toward the within.jpg
Live album by
Dead Can Dance
Released24 October 1994
Recorded16–17 November 1993
Venue Mayfair Theatre (Santa Monica, California)
Genre
Length67:56
Label 4AD
Producer
Dead Can Dance chronology
Into the Labyrinth
(1993)		Toward the Within
(1994)		 Spiritchaser
(1996)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Toward the Within is the first live album by Australian band Dead Can Dance, released on 24 October 1994 by 4AD. It contains 15 songs, of which only four appeared on their previous albums, and two of which were later re-recorded and included on Lisa Gerrard's first solo album, The Mirror Pool . The others previously existed only in live performances and unofficial bootlegs, but were not officially released until Toward the Within. Along with Perry and Gerrard were a number of musicians who had performed with them on other occasions.

Contents

Overview

Toward the Within was recorded in one take in November 1993 at the Mayfair Theatre in Santa Monica, California and was released by 4AD as an album and a video (VHS and LaserDisc) a year later. It was the last major event to take place in the Mayfair Theatre before it was severely damaged in the Northridge earthquake in January 1994 and had to be closed indefinitely. The video was filmed by producer Mark Magidson, known for his work on the 1992 film Baraka . It contains interviews with Gerrard and Perry, as well as a music video for "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)", composed of clips from Baraka.

While the CD functions as the soundtrack to the video, neither contain the entire show. The CD lacks "Gloridean" as well as the song played over the ending credits of the video, while the video lacks "Persian Love Song" and concert footage of "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)".

In 2001, Toward the Within was re-released on DVD and included in the box set Dead Can Dance (1981-1998) . In addition to the original content, the DVD release contained a few extras: a discography; music videos for "Frontier", "The Protagonist" and "The Carnival Is Over"; and a chapter from Baraka titled "Calcutta Foragers/Homeless", which is set to Dead Can Dance's "The Host of Seraphim". In 2004, the DVD was released in a stand-alone package.

Performers

List of musicians who performed in the Toward the Within live concert. [2]

Track listing

Songs composed by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, except as noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Rakim" 6:25
2."Persian Love Song"Traditional, arranged by Gerrard2:56
3."Desert Song" 4:20
4."Yulunga (Spirit Dance)"from Into the Labyrinth 7:12
5."Piece for Solo Flute"Robert Perry3:34
6."The Wind That Shakes the Barley" Robert Dwyer Joyce; from Into the Labyrinth 3:12
7."I Am Stretched on Your Grave"Words by unknown, translated by Frank O'Connor, music by Philip King 4:38
8."I Can See Now"Brendan Perry2:56
9."American Dreaming"Brendan Perry4:55
10."Cantara"from Within the Realm of a Dying Sun 5:15
11."Oman" 5:49
12."The Song of the Sibyl"Traditional; from Aion 4:31
13."Tristan"Gottfried Von Strassburg1:48
14."Sanvean"Lisa Gerrard, Andrew Claxton4:05
15."Don't Fade Away"Brendan Perry6:12

Note: "Persian Love Song" [6] is based on an ancient Persian song, [7] later re-recorded [8] by Lisa Gerrard and released in 1995 on her solo album The Mirror Pool . The same song was used by David Sylvian as an introduction to "Nostalgia" [9] (from the Brilliant Trees album), a 20-second sample from the song "The Silver Gun" [10] taken from Persian Love Song & Mystic Chants , an album released in 1971 by Shusha Guppy, although Sylvian did not specify that in the album credits. "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" is based on an anonymous 17th century poem. [11] Sinéad O'Connor performed the song in a traditional style over a hip hop drum beat on her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got . [12]

Charts

Chart performance for Toward the Within
Chart (1994)Peak
position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [13] 76
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [14] 81
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [15] 10
US Billboard 200 [16] 131

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dead Can Dance</span> British-Australian music duo

Dead Can Dance are an Australian world music and darkwave band from Melbourne. Currently composed of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, the group formed in 1981. They relocated to London the following year. 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 music, mantras, and art rock."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Gerrard</span> Australian musician, singer and composer

Lisa Germaine Gerrard is an Australian musician, singer and composer and member of the group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique (glossolalia). She has a dramatic contralto voice and has a vocal range of three octaves.

<i>Dead Can Dance</i> (album) 1984 studio album by Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance is the debut studio album by Australian musical act Dead Can Dance. It was released on 27 February 1984 on the 4AD label.

<i>Within the Realm of a Dying Sun</i> 1987 studio album by Dead Can Dance

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun is the third studio album by Australian band Dead Can Dance. It was released on 27 July 1987 by 4AD.

<i>The Serpents Egg</i> (album) 1988 studio album by Dead Can Dance

The Serpent's Egg is the fourth studio album by the Australian band Dead Can Dance, released on 24 October 1988 by record label 4AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Perry</span> British singer and multi-instrumentalist (born 1959)

Brendan Michael Perry is a British singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard.

<i>Itll End in Tears</i> 1984 studio album by This Mortal Coil

It'll End in Tears is the first album released by 4AD collective This Mortal Coil, an umbrella title for a loose grouping of guest musicians and vocalists brought together by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell. The album was released on 8 October 1984, and reached #38 on the UK Albums Chart. It features many of the artists on the 4AD roster at the time, including Cocteau Twins, Colourbox, and Dead Can Dance; as well as key post-punk figure Howard Devoto, who sang "Holocaust", one of two covers of songs from the Third/Sister Lovers album by Big Star. The other Alex Chilton-penned track, album opener "Kangaroo", was released as a single to promote the album. Two key songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, including Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren", which reached #66 on the UK Charts when released as This Mortal Coil's debut single a year before the album. The song remained on the UK Indie Chart for almost two years. Fraser also performed on "Another Day" by Roy Harper. 4AD would go on to release two further albums under the name of This Mortal Coil: Filigree & Shadow (1986) and Blood (1991).

<i>The Mirror Pool</i> 1995 studio album by Lisa Gerrard

The Mirror Pool is Lisa Gerrard's first solo album, released by 4AD in 1995.

<i>Spiritchaser</i> 1996 studio album by Dead Can Dance

Spiritchaser is the seventh studio album by Dead Can Dance, and would prove to be the last before the duo reunited fourteen years later for Anastasis. It expands on its exploration of world music, and like Into the Labyrinth, was recorded at Quivvy Church, Brendan Perry's personal studio in Ireland.

<i>Into the Labyrinth</i> (Dead Can Dance album) 1993 studio album by Dead Can Dance

Into the Labyrinth is the sixth studio album by Australian band Dead Can Dance, released on 13 September 1993, by 4AD. It marked a strong shift from their previous albums, putting ethnic music influences at the forefront, as would be the case in the later albums. It was their first album completed on their own without the aid of guest musicians, and their first album to have a major-label release in the US, thanks to a distribution deal that 4AD had with Warner Bros. Records. It featured the single "The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove". Into the Labyrinth was a major success, selling more than 500,000 copies worldwide.

<i>Dead Can Dance (1981–1998)</i> 2001 compilation album by Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance (1981–1998) (2001) is a four-disc box set, containing three CDs of music spanning Dead Can Dance's career and a DVD of their 1994 video release Toward the Within.

<i>Garden of the Arcane Delights</i> 1984 EP by Dead Can Dance

Garden of the Arcane Delights is the first EP by Australian band Dead Can Dance. It was released in August 1984 on record label 4AD. The tracks were later added to Dead Can Dance's self-titled debut album when it was re-released on CD.

"Sanvean: I am your shadow" is a song co-written in September 1993 by Lisa Gerrard and composer/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Claxton during rehearsals in Ireland for the 1993 Dead Can Dance international tour. Lisa Gerrard stated she wrote this song missing her family who had remained in Australia. Its first public performance was in Sligo, Ireland and first recorded on their 1994 live album Toward the Within, and later on Gerrard's 1995 solo album The Mirror Pool and The Best of Lisa Gerrard in 2007. Like most of her work it is sung in a euphonic and emotional pseudo-language.

<i>Aion</i> (Dead Can Dance album) 1990 studio album by Dead Can Dance

Aion is the fifth studio album by the Australian band Dead Can Dance, released on 11 June 1990 by 4AD. The first album Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry wrote after the end of their romantic partnership, it was recorded at Perry's new estate, Quivvy Church in Ireland, with additional recording on "The Arrival and the Reunion" and "The End of Words" taking place at Woodbine Street Recording Studios in Leamington Spa.

Pieter Bourke is an Australian musician, composer, producer and audio engineer. From 1995 he has recorded several projects with Dead Can Dance founder Lisa Gerrard, and was a touring member of Dead Can Dance's 1996 Spiritchaser Tour. On 14 April 1998 Bourke and Gerrard issued a world music album, Duality. From 1993 he also collaborated with industrial musician, David Thrussell, first as part of the latter's band Snog, then together as the ambient duo, Soma. In 2001, he formed a dub reggae outfit, Secret Masters, with Brian Westbrook. Bourke and Gerrard have received two shared Golden Globe nominations for 'Best Original Score', in 2000 for The Insider (1999), and in 2002 for Ali (2001).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shusha Guppy</span>

Shushā Guppy (Persian: شوشا گوپی; née Shamsi Assār^ was a writer, editor and a singer of Persian and Western folk songs. She lived in London from the early 1960s, until her death in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dead Can Dance discography</span> Band discography

Dead Can Dance is an ambient, world music band which has released nine studio albums so far, two live albums, four compilation albums, one video album, one extended play and nine singles. The band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1981 but relocated to London, United Kingdom in 1982 and signed with 4AD Records where they disbanded in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Ulrich</span> British songwriter and recording artist

Peter Lawrence Ulrich is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, recording artist and author.

This is the discography for Australian musician Lisa Gerrard.

<i>Garden of the Arcane Delights - The John Peel Sessions</i> 2016 compilation album by Dead Can Dance

Garden of the Arcane Delights + The John Peel Sessions is a compilation coupling the re-issue of the first and only EP by Australian band Dead Can Dance and two different sessions for the BBC Radio One John Peel show. It was released in November 2016 on record label 4AD with the Peel-supervised recordings allowed by arrangement with BBC Music.

References

  1. ↑ Ned Raggett (25 October 1994). "Toward the Within - Dead Can Dance | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Toward the Within by 4ad / Ada, Dead Can Dance | 652637271225 | CD | Barnes & Noble". Borders.com. 24 June 2013. Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Andrew Claxton". www.oxfordschoolofmusic.org.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "John Bonnar". www.deadcandance.info. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  5. ↑ "Robert Perry". Deadcandance.info. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "Persian Love Song by Dead Can Dance". Spotify.com.
  7. ↑ "Article on The Silver Gun". Tabnak.ir.
  8. ↑ "Persian Love Song - The Silver Gun by Lisa Gerrard". Spotify.com.
  9. ↑ "Nostalgia by David Sylvian". Spotify.com.
  10. ↑ "The Silver Gun by Shusha Guppy". Spotify.com.
  11. ↑ "Walsh's Irish Popular Songs", 1847, as "A Taim Sinte air do Thuamba"
  12. ↑ "I Am Stretched On Your Grave by Sinéad O'Connor". Spotify.com.
  13. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Dead Can Dance – Toward the Within" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  14. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Dead Can Dance – Toward the Within" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  15. ↑ "Independent Albums". Music Week . 12 November 1994. p. 18. ISSN   0265-1548.
  16. ↑ "Billboard 200 – Week of November 12, 1994". Billboard . Retrieved 29 August 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.