ANASTASIS

I didn't rate the last two studio albums of Dead Can Dance's original run especially highly, because after the excellent Aion I felt that the creative partnership between Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry was becoming visibly frayed. Rather than emanating from a duo working in unison to a common musical vision, the albums in question felt like two solo artists working side by side to distinct and different ends, awkwardly cramped together in the same musical project out of inertia.

How pleasing, then, to find that Anastasis finds Dead Can Dance having a creative reconciliation of sorts. returning to the studio to create new material not because they're aftert a quick cash-in but because they clearly have a common musical goal to attain. Somewhat more sober and wistful than the band's earlier work, Dead Can Dance might be mellower after the passage of time, but they're still playing a tune I can dance to.