Customer Reviews

Ark

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you know the name Brendan Perry from somewhere, it is likely as one half of the male / female duo called Dead Can Dance from the 1990's. Sometimes labeled World Music in stores, no one else sounded like them. Many fans found it difficult to describe to other people what the band's music was like. People just had to hear it for themselves. I hardly know anyone who gave them a listen who wasn't instantly hooked. I have described them as the sound of ancient and mysterious cultures, music, and instruments brought back to life from the ancient past, and then mixed in a new modern way that makes it both timeless and relevant for today. Compelling and capable of lifting the spirit, the vocals from Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard were every bit as powerful and compelling as the incredible music they composed.

Since going separate ways, Lisa has done quite a bit of work as the now familiar and haunting voice we sometimes hear in various movie soundtracks, including Gladiator. Brendan put out a solo album called "Eye of the Hunter" some years ago. It was a beautiful album, though certainly a departure from what people were used to from the master song writer of Dead Can Dance.

Brendan is back again, this time with a new contract with Cooking Vinyl records to do even more albums in the very near future.

The newest album, Ark, gives us an absolutely amazing soundscape more reminiscent of his work in Dead Can Dance, but with some pleasant new surprises along the way. Playing this album will sweep the listener up into other worlds, while still maintaining firm roots in planet earth. The album is at times dark, sometimes exotic, sometimes pessimistic, yet remaining hopeful. While many of the songs provide significant commentary regarding world events, this album is anything but cold politics. It is also very much a personal and emotional album that draws us into the struggle of humanity.

It would be very easy for me to think of this as a new Dead Can Dance album, minus Lisa. However, if it were another Dead Can Dance album, I think it would probably be one of the strongest to date. As a fan of Dead Can Dance from the 1990's, this album is very fulfilling. It takes much of the familiar sound of Dead Can Dance, but adds to it, making the music even more dynamic with a more modern sound. Ark uses powerful drums, synthesizer and guitar work, combined with other more antique instruments (like the dulcimer) to create a unique and moving atmosphere you simply don't hear on pop radio.

Ark is what popular music should be like if pop music were more original, and if its lyrics were reflective of contemplative intelligence and the soul searching quest for truth and knowledge. This album certainly has a global soundtrack to support the album's global themes, whether they are politics, war, religion, environmental concerns, or the human condition.

I highly recommend Ark for anyone who has grown weary of the standard pop fare, and is searching for something new that will move and inspire the soul to greater heights.

I've been a big fan of Dead Can Dance for twenty (!) years. So naturally, I was quite excited to get hold of Brendan Perry's Solo album ARK. Let me say that I was a little concerned beforehand, when it was suggested by others, and the artist himself, that it would be a more "electronic" recording. From the very first listen though, the opening track "Babylon" blew me away. This album has been expertly recorded. Beautiful crisp highs, fully pronounced lows, the synth lines and awesome arrangements that we have come to expect from Brendan are all there. I LOVE this sound. The ebbing bass throughout my personally favorite track, "The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea" is captivating. Brendan's vocals and lyrics are perfectly crafted. The music on this album takes me away and makes me think of other things that I normally don't think so much about, just like the music from Dead Can Dance does. I don't know how to explain that, but last night I played this album whilst on the back deck of my home, drinking a lovely pale ale and watching the moon slowly cross the night sky. This music makes me want to do that. Just like DCD does. Enough said.

Long awaited, has it been more than a decade already since "Eye Of The Hunter"? In "Ark", Brendan Perry proves all his high level abilities as a composer, musician AND a singer (what a voice!). One man show, yes (he plays and performs almost everything himself) still there is no lack of musicality, inspiration and trance. Less acoustic and more rythym with beautiful and charismatic arrangements - Brendan Perry is a great song writer. (Who can forget the beautifully haunting "Don't Fade Away" - a live only recorded song from the late Dead Can Dance era). He talks about Love and everything that a human being should question, wonder and worry about nowadays, regarding Loneliness, (In)humanity, Isolation, Ignorance, but also politics and universal chaos we have come to (or forced to) live in and find our own way. Straight and simple lyrics with strong melodic lines in melancholy tunes; Brendan is a seeker, a sirious thinker and a poet in his own unique way. Of course this release makes you wanna go back and listen once again to all his previous works (apart Dead Dead Cance, unfortunately not to many). Would like to see how 'Ark' would work in a live concert (hopefully on a forthcoming DVD). Can't really make a pick but, 'Wintersun', 'Utopia' and 'The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" are really outstanding tracks which carry you away. This album worths a lot of listening and surely grows on the listener. Highly Recommended.

Brendan Perry certainly has a way of confounding fans' expectations. After the demise of Dead Can Dance in 1998, just as that famed duo were exploring a percussion-heavy style with references to African and Arab music, Perry gave us an acoustic guitar, singer-songwriter solo album in EYE OF THE HUNTER. For years afterwards, rumours circulated that his next solo effort would come soon and feature the polyrhythms and global references that many awaited, but a decade of silence passed and was ultimately broken with ARK, something else entirely.

ARK is a dark, slow, brooding landscape of synthesizers and sequencers. All acoustic instruments on the album were played by Brendan alone and fed into a complex computer setup. The result, Perry explains, is meant to represent just how dependent we are on technology in this modern age, with potentially dehumanizing effects.
Perry's voice is in fine form here, just as solid as those early 1990s efforts like INTO THE LABYRINTH and the Tim Buckley covers that gained him a great deal of respect as a singer. Some of the songs here where he sticks to personal themes such as relationships or his fears for the future, have quite an emotional hit, namely "Wintersun", "Utopia" and "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea".

Besides the theme of the overwhelming pace of technological development, Brendan Perry also sings of political and religious disillusionment. Indeed, the first two songs are passionate statements against, respectively, US militarism in the Middle East and the false promises of politicians. The final track, "Crescent", is concered with religious extremism in what was once Mesapotamia, the cradle of civilization. Unfortunately, the album is lyrically something of a disappointment. Often noble sentiments are undone by clumsy wording and awkward delivery, e.g. "Sons and daughters of America, / you laid down your lives. / For the warlords of America, / not for your sake, not for mine."

So I have mixed feelings about ARK. Nonetheless, I'm sure anyone who enjoyed Brendan's work with Dead Can Dance and his initial solo recordings will still find most of this album musically worthwhile. (I suspect I may change this from 3 stars to 4 with time.) Furthermore, the occasional disappointments don't strike so deep when one still perceives that Brendan has it together vocally and musically, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

Brendan Perry is a man with a lot on his mind. For those of you familiar with the epic music of Dead Can Dance, you definitely won't be disappointed in the richly-layered tapestry of soundscapes that Perry has brilliantly envisioned on this ambitious second solo outing. And the fact that he is playing all the instruments makes it all the more rewarding. But truth be told, it's not really the music that takes center stage on this album, but Perry's profoundly personal commentary about life, war, hopelessness and the destruction of Mother Earth--a gift mankind has selfishly tarnished to his own end. Yes, we have made our burning beds, and now we must sleep in them.

Perry does not mince words when he alludes to the lies of peace; the ravenous man machine; senseless wars; empty causes; lost lives; cold-blooded reptilian politicians; materialism; global destruction; and the death of innocence. Perry is basically saying what most of us are probably already thinking--that the flame of existence is getting snuffed out at our own hands. But there is something much deeper going on here. Something much more personal--as if we are bearing witness to Perry's own internal demons as he single-handedly takes on the sins of the world in one last empathetic gesture.

Like "Leeloo" in Luc Besson's sci-fi cult classic, "The Fifth Element," Perry's extreme sensitivity to the world comes rushing through on this album, leaving us crying in the corner as we view our own destruction play out before us like bad theater in the auditorium of humanity. For like Perry, we feel invisible and numb--trapped within our own suburban hell, as we mindlessly and blindly live out our lives vicariously through our TV sets and on the Internet. For like the stars, our souls are dead and we don't even know it. So all we can hang onto is the illusion and lie of living, as the final curtain comes down on us.

If there is a glimmer of hope to be found in Perry's sobering vision, it is rooted in love, in mercy, in living the righteous life, and in the resilience of Mother Nature herself. For even if we end up drowning ourselves in our own greed, anger and ignorance, the seeds of life will once again rise from the dark earth to kiss the sun. Highly recommended.

For those of us who enjoyed Dead Can Dance and Brendan Perry's first solo album, it's been a long wait for new studio material. Ark succeeds on all fronts and satisfies in many unexpected ways. Yes, Brendan Perry is an amazing singer and lyricist who can knock you back into you chair and make you listen more deeply than you ever thought possible. Yes, Brendan's influences are varied and combined in ways that sound totally new and modern. And, yes, Ark is worth the wait. Not only does this record bear up under repeated listenings, but I continue to hear new and dazzling elements in these subtle and brilliant compositions each time. Highly Recommended. A Desert Island CD if there ever was one.

I can not begin to tell you how much I love this album. Without knowing, if someone were to tell me that this was a new Dead Can Dance album, I would believe them. Every single song on "Ark" would fit perfectly well next to any song from the "Aion" and "Into The Labyrinth" eras of DCD. Of course, without Lisa's input there isn't quite the same vocal diversity, but I am perfectly fine with that. Basically, think of "Ark" as "Black Sun", "How Fortunate The Man With None", "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove", and "Carnival Is Over" spread out for an entire album.

O.k., I know that review assumes knowledge of Dead Can Dance. For those without that reference point, I can tell you that this is a very worthwhile buy. Brendan Perry has a deep an soothing vocal, that is almost hypnotic. It drifts in and out of the background with an echo that almost makes it sound like he is singing from another dimension. His lyrics are poetic, and those of a sophisticated songwriter. His song arrangements are a mix of traditional "world" instruments, with a very subtle use of electronics and synthesizers (that accentuate the songs, rather than distract from them). I can not talk up this CD enough. Now that I finally got around to buying it, I can already predict that I will be listening to it A LOT over the next several months. I can not believe it took me this long to buy it!

Unbelievable; I'm a long time DCD fan who bought Eye of the Hunter and was insanely disappointed... I don't know how long it took/ how many listens, but it became one of my favorite discs hands down. Now I buy Ark hoping it'll be brilliant like EotH and I put it in and think 'utter crap'... now a week and about twenty listenings later I get it! It is truly an art to create an album that doesn't immediately please, but becomes increasingly captivating with each spin! This guy is just plain good. Can't wait for the next solo disc.

Brendan Perry's new CD is just what you'd expect from him. It's evocative, mysterious, a fusion of the esoteric and the profane. I keep finding a new favorite almost every time I listen to it, alhtough I have to say that I'm really, really loving "Babylon." I've followed DCD for years, and seen them twice in concert, own most of their CDs. My initial impulse was to say that the only thing missing was Lisa's voice, but, as much as I love to listen to her, that's just not the case with Ark. Nothing is missing from Ark. Brendan stands on his own and I for one am loving it. It's just what you'd expect from him, only better.

I always preferred Brendan Perry to Lisa Gerrard in DCD by a wide margin, if for no other reason than the fact that, unlike Gerrard, I could understand what he was singing about (that and the fact that it was nearly always extraordinarily meaningful what he was singing about!) Ever since the two went solo, I kept anticipating that Perry would produce an absolute masterpiece at some point, such is the esteem with which I hold his artistic powers.
However, his solo career has, first of all, been plagued by a lack of productivity (two solo recordings in 13 years?!) Second of all, although both of his solo efforts have had stunningly masterful moments, neither project as a whole could be called a masterpiece. Both efforts were uneven--some songs singularly fantastic, some songs slow duds. And now to top it all off, there are only eight songs here---big bummer.
In this case, the opening song, "Babylon" is very strong, and has perhaps the most meaningful and profound lyrics of any song on here. "Utopia" is the catchiest and obviously "best" song here, and it is strongly reminscent of Perry's work with DCD. However, whereas "Utopia" is enthralling for the first 9 or 10 listens and then tends to fade a bit from one's consciousness, the song "Wintersun" won't absolutely blow you away for the first 4 or 5 listens, but if you listen to it beyond 5, then look out because you will have a serious addiction on your hands. "Wintersun" is perhaps a bit more reminiscent of Perry's work on his first album, despite the synths featured here, and the acoustic guitars featured there. "Wintersun" is one of the most subtlely addicting songs Perry--or anyone for that matter--has ever written, and it finds Perry in a profoundly mature and reflective mood--and with Perry, when it's profound, it's beyond the profundity of where most living mortals can go. For a songwriter, when this guy goes deep, he goes Marianas Trench deep, emotionally and metaphysically. The song "This Boy" is also very good, and very haunting, especially the opening-to-first half of it.
Unfortunately (and you knew this was coming), the rest of the album, everything I haven't mentioned, isn't all that great. In fact it smacks of "filler." Now, given that it's Brendan Perry, it's going to be slow filler, deliberate filler, and often very meaningful filler, but filler it sounds like, because there's just not much musically going on. In fact, on some of these other songs--and this is shocking--even some of the lyrics occasionally sound trite, such as where Perry sings about sitting in his room watching television of all things. After 13 years, you'd think Perry would have stockpiled enough ideas and tunes to where his next effort would be more even throughout; sadly for my listening pleasure--and it is a sobering thought--it is evident to me now that the songwriter whose songwriting talents I esteem the most out of anybody out there is, on his own, only capable of writing 3 or 4 masterpiece ditties every 10 or 12 years.
Brendan Perry may never create the total masterpiece that I used to think he had in him. But those fragments of a masterpiece that he does create are sure worth the listen.