The Mirror Pool

Lisa Gerrard | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 1995)
• Original Release Date: August 22, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: 4AD
• ASIN: B000002MYI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,362 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Violina: The Last Embrace

2. La Bas: Song of the Drowned

3. Persian Love Song: The Silver Gun

4. Sanvean: I Am Your Shadow

5. The Rite

6. Ajhon

7. Glorafin

8. Majhnavea's Music Box

9. Largo

10. Werd

11. Laurelei

12. Celon

13. Venteles

14. Swans

15. Nilleshna

16. Gloradin

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Dead Can Dance chanteuse ditches her partner, Brendan Perry, for this solo outing. Mixing middle-eastern drones, Balkan stringed instruments, Chinese percussion, and the European classical tradition, it's a singularly beautiful and mesmerizing album that occupies a genre all of its own. File next to Chant and Jan Garbarek, and be sure to alert progressive-minded classical buffs. --Jeff Bateman

Product Description

Out of print in the U.S.! First solo album from the Dead Can Dance vocalist, originally released in 1995. Continuing in the same vein as DCD, Gerard receives musical assistance from Australia's Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra, John Bonnar, Pieter Bourke and others. 16 tracks. 4AD. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreamy, February 28, 2003

By 

Kelly (Fantasy Literature) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Mirror Pool (Audio CD)

I had heard that _The Mirror Pool_ was "darker" and more "sad" than Lisa Gerrard's later duet album, _Duality_, and so I was hesitant to buy it. How very silly of me.

There are two kinds of sad music. One type of sad music drops you into a blue funk even if you're perfectly happy when you start listening to it; it makes you feel morose and depressed. The other type of sad music is comforting when you are actually sad, and if you listen to it when happy, you will find it not depressing but simply beautiful. Sarah McLachlan is a perfect example of that sort of "sad music". And so is Lisa Gerrard, though her style is 180 degrees from Sarah's. And as far as "dark" goes, this music does not conjure up a hellish cavern or "goth" catacomb, complete with the smell of brimstone. (I'll leave that sort of music to my teenage brother.) Lisa Gerrard's music evokes the darkness of a moonlit night, or a candlelit room. It's "romantic" dark, not "oppressive" dark. I liked it very much.

Though it's a sublime experience to listen to this album from start to finish, here are a few of my favorite tracks:

"La Bas: Song of the Drowned"--With its low, chanting vocals and haunting church bell, "La Bas" reminds me of nothing so much as the mythical island of Ys, sunken beneath the waves, whose ghost bells are said to be heard from the shore.

"Sanvean: I Am Your Shadow"--I actually didn't like this song at first. With its swooping melody and mournful tone, I at first thought it was too melodramatic. But I found myself humming it all day after my first listen; it followed me like the shadow of the title. After a few more listens, it became one of my favorites.

"Largo"--Lisa Gerrard sings a Handel piece, and proves she has the pipes to put a lot of these "pop opera" divas to shame.

"Laurelei"--I just love this one. It has a hypnotic melody and a morphing tempo. It's rather long but never seems to get old.

"Nilleshna" and "Gloradin"--the last two tracks, which together close out the CD on a soothing note.

I highly recommend this beautiful, entrancing album to anyone who likes beautiful, entrancing albums.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Amazing Voice--simple as that, February 4, 2001

By 

CD (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mirror Pool (Audio CD)

Like most people, I first came encounter with Lisa Gerrard through the amazing Dead Can Dance. I was never a huge fan of her partner in DCD, Brendan Perry. His voice appealed to me very few times. But Lisa...well, I was blown away, every time I heard her.

And now, for her to have gone solo (after a supposedly terrible break-up of her and Perry's group, I don't know the facts) and to have released albums like this and "Duality" (and God willing, many more), it's a dream come true for me. I could listen to Lisa for hours. She has a haunting, powerful voice that very few other singers come close to matching. The contemporary divas of today--Witney Houston, Mariah Carrey, even Aretha Franklin--don't meet the beautiful and chilling qualities of Gerrard's voice. While these aforementioned singers may be talented, none of them can send a chill through your body like Lisa. I know I like something when I feel a chill go up my spine and into my scalp, and it just doesn't go away. Lisa definitely does that.

This CD should be heard, over and over and over. Every time I hear it, I discover something new that I love about it. The way she can carry her listeners along very melodically, or paralyze them with her prowess. The best track is Track 14, Swans. It's one of those songs that I imagine is impossible to sing with. (I've never tried, and God forbid I dared try to sing.) Lisa starts off rather calm, yet then builds the suspense, and her voice begins to move a little faster, and all of the sudden, she becomes beautifully frenzied. Then it seems as if she's reached her peak...and she hasn't even begun. It's tracks like this that make music like this so great.

It's a shame, how so few people have heard of Lisa Gerrard, yet she sings so amazingly well. Hopefully, her work with the "Gladiator" soundtrack (I was so happy when she won the Golden Globe--she so deserved it!) will bring her more fans, and will heighten her popularity. For now, I definitely recommend anyone who would like to hear this woman sing to buy a Dead Can Dance CD (try "The Serpent's Egg" or "Aion," they're perhaps the best, but save the first two, particularly the self-titled debut, for when you've heard their better stuff, since those two aren't as well-produced) and then pick this and "Duality" up. Lisa's voice has changed over the years, since DCD's first really great CD, "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" (another recommendation) and "Duality," her most recent, but she has always had a very beautiful and moving voice, and should get the recognition she so greatly deserves.

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOLY, November 16, 2003

By 

SystemStructure "System uses Meditate! A goo... (town, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mirror Pool (Audio CD)

This music is so fundamentally powerful that I struggle to put it into words. I am a fan of various genres including hardcore punk and metal - yet this CD can tear me to shreds when I listen to it. Pure, raw, spiritual emotion pummels you endlessly through the unearthly vocals of Lisa Gerrard. Her range, talent, creativity, and dynamics here are supreme. She is unparalelled. Her backing musicians are jaw-droppingly talented as well.

This CD is an example of a powerful artist at the top of their game. This takes feminine vocals over the top and beyond. Very much worth your time if you are into spiritual musics from around the globe.