Customer Reviews

Aion

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best DCD album I have heard, which makes it one of the most beautiful bits of music ever. By now a lot of people know about Lisa Gerrard's beautiful voice and Middle Eastern-influenced dance beats, and those are displayed very nicely here. Radharc is one of the best examples of the latter. But Aion is dominated slightly more by the neo-classical and Renaissance vibe - Saltarello, the second track on the album, is far and away the best "pure" (no drum machines or samples) Medieval dance track you will ever hear. I play this track often to techno and trance junkies, and usually they are simply stunned. Aion also features some of Brendan Perry's trademark dark, droning vocals that will have Nick Cave and Peter Murphy fans weeping with delight - Black Sun is the standout. A great album to start your DCD collection with, especially if you've just heard about the band and don't quite know the material yet. (Note - their first albums are mostly slow and dark, like Black Sun. Their later work is more dancy and "exotic", typically more like Radharc. Lisa Gerrard's solo work is pretty much all like that.)

'Aion' was my introduction to Dead Can Dance (DCD) and it has truly made a fan of me! The choral explosion on "Arrival and the Reunion" [pulled] me in fast as it reminded me a lot of neo-goth group, Mors Syphilitica. Then comes a 14th-century instrumental piece called "Saltarello", which has a great Renaissance dance beat that's really quite irresistible when it comes to swaying in your stilled position! The music slows down a bit once "Song of the Sibyl" comes on though as it features very little background noise. Instead it focuses solely on the chilling vocals of Lisa Gerrard's shaky yet affective vibrato. One of the best Dead Can Dance songs with Lisa singing on vocals however would have to be "As The Bell Rings the Maypole Spins", which features some incredible bagpipe playing!

I love both of the duo's voices so I really appreciate the fact that they trade-off after "Song Of The Sibyl" from Lisa to Brendan Perry, whom sings on the subtle Medieval tune, "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book". It's on the haunting "Black Sun", which brings to mind the dark brilliance of 'Within The Realm of a Dying Sun', that his somber baritone truly succeeds in tantilizing the listener with his seductive vocals though! And while the eastern influenced "Radharc" may arguably be the best song on 'Aion', the entire album is a delightful treat for the senses and I couldn't recommend it any higher!

I happened to stumble across this AION due to my experience with Cocteau Twins, which are on the very same label as Dead Can Dance..."4AD". I read reviews for <Aion> and other Dead Can Dance releases. <Aion> sounded like the one I would enjoy the most, and well, I was right.

This CD is simply amazing. Flavors of medieval times swirl....sweeping hills and valleys....majestic cathedrals and castles...villages gathering, creating a festival like atmosphere...flames dance atop their torches as stars sparkle in the night sky above.

The beauty of this album starts with the cover. A mysterious and enchanting doorway....once you go through, a new world appears. This music is beautifully written, and wonderfully produced, and is unlike any musical experience you've ever had. Soaring vocals...gothic drums echo throughout...14th century strings to accompany. T'is a feast for your musical soul, and if you listen closely enough, you just might hear yourself.

Released in 1990, AION shows Dead Can Dance, the duo of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, exploring styles of Medieval times and the Renaissance. The production is excellent, and it ranks among DCD's best albums.

AION opens with "The Arrival and the Reunion," a short piece that shows off Lisa's amazing voice as overdubs allow her to provide her own polyphony, with David Navarro Sust (a collaborator on 1989's THE SERPENT'S EGG) providing backing vocals.

There are a number of quiet, instrumental pieces on this album which sound highly authentic, such as "Saltarello" (which really is a piece from the 14th century), "Wilderness," and "The Garden of Zephirus."

As with any Dead Can Dance album, there are songs that feature either Brendan or Lisa more heavily. Lisa provides among others "Radharc," "The Promised Womb," and "The Song of the Sibyl," although for that last one I prefer the live version on TOWARD THE WITHIN.

Brendan gives us the tragicomic "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book" and the odd "Black Sun."

It's remarkable how this album, the first after Lisa and Brendan split up (she went to Spain, he went to Ireland), features such excellent collaboration. Definitely one of Dead Can Dance's best albums, although I think the best is WITHIN THE REALM OF A DYING SUN.

Aion is the most accessible and widely enjoyed album by non-hard core Dead Can Dance fans. Although short, it merits an immediate repeat listening. Of all DCD records, this is the first one to try.

Fans of a cappela choral music will enjoy this work, as well as post-punk fans of Cocteau Twins, shoegazer, and progressive rock. While this selection does offer a complex instrumental arrangements, those whose first introduction to polyphonic chant from the wildly popular "Chant" album of The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos will not be disappointed with this bridge between two worlds.

The song "Black Sun" is notable for Brendan Perry's haunting baritone vocals over repetitive droning strings and reed instruments, with driving nested percussion the reminds one of David Byrne and Brian Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."

Other selections feature Lisa Gerrard's haunting controlo soprano solos and harmonies that immediately invoke and make modern compositions from Hildegard von Bingen.

4AD is a label known for seeking and promoting music that invokes a sense of timelessness. Dead Can Dance's "Aion" is an exemplary instance of that goal, you will not be disappointed.

A masterwork that transcends time itself, DCD channel musical history as much as dazzle with their own contemporary genius. Listening to this is to be transported in such profound and mesmerizing ways I can't even begin to fully describe. It elicits incredibly powerful emotion just listening to it. Real, organic instrumentation coupled with passionate singing. It may shake you to the core, it is that good, that transcendent and powerful.

during their recorded lifespan, DCD possessed an uncanny ability to take almost any kind of music and make it their own. this CD is no exception, as brendan and lisa take on the renaissance. (what other band would even have the temerity to tackle a 14th-century saltarello?)

everything about the music suggests it's been around for centuries, and that's the genius of DCD on this release...from the mesmerizing bagpipe lines and lisa's trademark chanting in "as the bell rings the maypole spins" (track 6) to what could possibly be brendan's best and most ominous vocal outing yet, the jaw-dropping "black sun" (track 8). in an album of highlights, these two are easily the standouts.

from tasteful restraint to being downright playful, DCD succeeds in taking us all back to the future on "aion." among their best!

If you know DCD, you know how wonderfully literate and just spectacular their lyrics can be. This album is no different. It has "Black Sun" which I was blessed enough to see live in 06, and "Radharc", both stand the test of time. This is not a good "My first DCD" cd only because the music is very genre specific, and if you have never heard their stuff before you may get lost in the tangles of myth and legend. I'm sure some will disagree, but I don't find this album to be a good `get to know me' album - I suggest starting with DCD, "Into the Labyrinth" a sort of Best Of, without the corny-ness of being a Greatest Hits. It gives a wide breadth of styles and lets you hear all of the creamy goodness the band has offered up in the years gone by. Id say this album has a definate "Arabian flair" and not everyone is open to that. I however am a huge fan of World Music, and this is right up my crooked dimly lit alley.
BTW, when you see H. Bosch on the front cover of an album, you know its going to be good!

This album consists mostly of songs inspired by Renaissance and Medieval music. A few of them are actually by Renaissance composers, but the rest are originals. They vary from slow, contemplative pieces such as "The End of Words" to fast and energetic ones like "Radharc." These are often more successful when they sound less like the material that inspired them, since there is no shortage of early music CDs at the moment.

Dead Can Dance has only two core members, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. Gerrard is the lead singer on most of the songs, which is a good thing, since she is a very talented one. Perry does fine providing harmony, but he when he is the main singer (such as on "Black Sun," the only song here I really dislike) he sounds like he can't sing. There are never more than two or three vocalists, but through studio editing they can sound like a whole choir. The guests that appear on some tracks, such as bagpiper Robert Perry on track 6 or the quartet of viols on track 10, never seem out of place and are always good musicians.

This is an interesting album. It brings a different perspective to early music, and the performers are skilled. I also like the way that Lisa Gerrard uses nonsense words as lyrics on many of the songs. For some vocal music compositions, it is hard to find a suitable text. You hear wordless singing from time to time, but why settle for a few vowel sounds when the entire phonology to choose from? It could also make this CD useful if you want to add an auditory component to a roleplaying game, since your players won't wonder "Why are the (imaginary place)ites singing in French (or German, Latin, etc.)?" The main drawback is that the album is only 36 minutes long.

If you like this music, there are numerous CDs of early music that you mmight like as well. Two that come to mind are The Way of the Pilgrim: Medieval Songs of Travel (ASIN: B000056KNB), which is performed by the Toronto Consort, and a collection of Hildegard von Bingen's music called Canticles of Ecstasy (ASIN: B000001TYF), but there are many others, only a few of which I have.

The cover of Aion (a detail from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights) provides a strong clue to the stylistic theme of this disc, Dead Can Dance's fifth album. With the exception of one track, the songs on this album are modern interpretations (often quite faithful) of medieval vocal and instrumental music. And therein lies the rub - if you dislike medieval or period music, you are likely to find the album slow and dull, whereas if you do like it, this may quickly become one of your favorite discs.

My own tastes fall somewhere in between the two extremes, with the result that I find my favorite tracks on the album are those where Dead Can Dance's Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard provide some interesting modern spin on the period sound. The brief opening track, The Arrival and the Reunion, offers a thrilling take on medieval choral singing, quickly followed by a reworking of a lively dance tune, Saltarello, which is performed on period instruments but features an added modern punch in the production that pushes it into the realm of greatness. The marvelous centerpiece to the album are Brendan's Fortune Presents Gifts and Lisa's As The Bell Rings. The former features a crystalline production of a traditional Spanish poem on the vagaries of fortune, delivered in Brendan's rich baritone over an atmospheric backdrop of lute and drone, while the latter combines a modern drum machine with period bagpipe and Lisa's marvelous singing.

A couple of the album tracks, Mephisto and The Garden of Zephyrus, are brief musical sketches which come and go without registering much of an impression. Of the more traditional medieval tracks, The Song of Sybil is stately and lovely, while The End of Words, Wilderness and The Promised Womb require a deeper love of traditional medieval music than I possess. The album closer, Radharc, punches up the tempo and explores some of the middle eastern influences in medieval music; it might not sound out of place blaring from a radio in Cairo.

The one oddball track on this album is Brendan's Black Sun. Though it is one of his best songs, it bears little resemblance stylistically to the rest of the album; its horns, plucked strings, and goth lyrics place it more in the genre of their previous albums, particularly Within The Realm of A Dying Sun. It doesn't exactly clash with the rest of the album, but it also doesn't fit very well either.