''Toward the Within'' (1994) is the first official live album of

Brendan Perry Brendan Michael Perry (born 30 June 1959) is a British singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as half of the duo Dead Can Dance with Lisa Gerrard. Early life Perry was born in Whitechapel, London, England, UK, in 1959 to a mot ...

and

Lisa Gerrard Lisa Germaine Gerrard (; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique ( ...

's group

Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are an Australian music duo first established in Melbourne. Currently composed of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, the group formed in 1981. They relocated to London the following year. Australian music historian Ian McFarlane des ...

. It contains 15 songs, of which only four appeared on their previous albums, and two of which were later re-recorded and included on Lisa Gerrard's first solo album, ''

The Mirror Pool ''The Mirror Pool'' is Lisa Gerrard's first solo album, released by 4AD in 1995 (one year before the release of '' Spiritchaser'', the last work Dead Can Dance issued before disbanding in 1998). Overview Among this album's musicians was Piete ...

''. The others previously existed only in live performances and unofficial bootlegs, but were not officially released until ''Toward the Within''. Along with Perry and Gerrard were a number of musicians who had performed with them on other occasions.

Overview

''Toward the Within'' was recorded in one take in November 1993 at the Mayfair Theatre in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and was released by 4AD as an album and a video ( VHS and LaserDisc) a year later. It was the last major event to take place in the Mayfair Theatre before it was severely damaged in the

Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximatel ...

in January 1994 and had to be closed indefinitely. The video was filmed by producer Mark Magidson, known for his work on the 1992 film ''

Baraka Baraka or Barakah may refer to: * Berakhah or Baraka, in Judaism, a blessing usually recited during a ceremony * Barakah or Baraka, in Islam, the beneficent force from God that flows through the physical and spiritual spheres * Baraka, full ''ḥ ...

''. It contains interviews with Gerrard and Perry, as well as a music video for "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)", composed of clips from ''Baraka''. While the CD functions as the soundtrack to the video, neither contain the entire show. The CD lacks "Gloridean" as well as the song played over the ending credits of the video, while the video lacks "Persian Love Song" and concert footage of "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)". In 2001, ''Toward the Within'' was re-released on DVD and included in the box set '' Dead Can Dance (1981-1998)''. In addition to the original content, the DVD release contained a few extras: a discography; music videos for "Frontier", "The Protagonist" and "The Carnival Is Over"; and a chapter from ''

'' titled "Calcutta Foragers/Homeless", which is set to Dead Can Dance's "The Host of Seraphim". In 2004, the DVD was released in a stand-alone package.

Performers

List of musicians who performed in the ''Toward the Within'' live concert. *

(voice, percussion, guitar, tin whistle,

yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed t ...

) *

(voice, yangqin, percussion) * Lance Hogan (guitar) * Andrew Claxton (keyboard, percussion) * John Bonnar (keyboard, percussion) * Rónán Ó Snodaigh (percussion) * Robert Perry (percussion, flute, low D whistle, guitar)

Track listing

Songs composed by Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, except as noted Note: "Persian Love Song" is based on an ancient Persian song, later re-recorded by

and released in 1995 on her solo album ''

''. The same song was used by

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

as an introduction to "Nostalgia" (from the '' Brilliant Trees'' album), a 20-second sample from the song "The Silver Gun" taken from '' Persian Love Song & Mystic Chants'', an album released in 1971 by Shusha Guppy, although Sylvian did not specify that in the album credits. " I Am Stretched on Your Grave" is based on an anonymous 17th century poem. Sinéad O'Connor performed the song in a traditional style over a hip hop drum beat on her 1990 album '' I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got''.

References

External links

*
Details of "Toward The Within" Laserdisc on LDDb.com
{{Authority control Dead Can Dance albums 1994 live albums 2004 live albums 2004 video albums Live video albums 4AD live albums 4AD video albums Warner Records live albums Warner Records video albums