Immortal Memory (CD - 2004)

Personnel: Lisa Gerrard (vocals).

Audio Mixer: Simon Bowley.

Arrangers: Lisa Gerrard; Patrick Cassidy.

Immortal Memory is a collaboration between vocalist Lisa Gerrard and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy. Billed as a cycle of life and death and rebirth, Immortal Memory is better described as an orphaned film score. Cassidy's warm arrangements allow the former Dead Can Dance singer to step out of the dark medieval world that she's called home for nearly 20 years -- though there is much of that world within these castle walls -- and focus on the simplicity of love, faith, and loss with a grace that's bereft of the icy perfection of her previous work. Gerrard, whose voice has aged like the finest oak, displays an almost supernatural mastery of the material. Her effortless contralto wraps itself around the ten Gaelic, Latin, and Aramaic spirituals like an evening prayer, making each stunning entrance the equivalent of audio comfort food. Echoing her collaboration with composer Hans Zimmer on the Academy Award-winning Gladiator -- Gerrard and Cassidy framed this work during the recording of the film's soundtrack -- ethereal pieces like the solo showpiece "Elegy" and the Cassidy-penned lament for his late father, "Psallit in Aure Dei," are powerful statements hatched by two people who understand each other like old friends. The majestic opener, "Song of Amergin," with its sublime Celtic melody and slow build, is indicative of the pieces to follow, allowing listeners the time to decide whether or not this is a road they wish to travel. Fans of Enya, Dead Can Dance, or snowy, image-laden soundscapes of powerful quietude will have no problem making that choice. ~ James Christopher Monger

As soft and eloquent as a prayer, as vast and impressive as a mountain, this is a grand work by former Dead Can Dance singer Lisa Gerrard and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy. The name of the second track, "Elegy," fits the mood here perfectly; this is music firmly rooted in the classical mystic soil of Gorecki and Handel, but branching up through mysterious blackened thunder clouds.

On "Sailing to Byzantium," strings and droning vocals slide in and out of each other before some echoing cannon-fire percussion appears on the horizon, slowly adding dimensions of emotion. For the haunting "Our Father," Gerrard brings her voice down an octave, with results both protean and sophisticated. She reaches down even lower on "Paradise Lost," as if embodying the genderless voice of the whole human soul as it moves through the fleeting darkness of mortality. What lyrics there are here come mostly from ancient languages--Gaelic, Aramaic, Latin--adding up to the ancient, otherworldly feel. This music may evoke the mourning rites of death, but it also conjures the immortal spirit's ascent to heaven. minimize