Dead Can Dance's Into the Labyrinth

I can tell you a little bit about them. I have 2 cd's - "Aion", and "Within the Realm of the Dying Sun". Both very good, and interesting, though probably not among my favorite cd's. The one thing I'll say is they are unique.
There are many musicians playing on the cd's, but the primary members are Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. Lisa Gerrard is now solo and has done a lot of movie soundtracks, inclding "Gladiator" and "Whale Rider". I have her cd "Mirror Pool" which is better than either of the DCD cd's I have. One track on it, "Sanvean" is the reason I bought it and was played in a West Wing episode last year. It's a beautiful, haunting piece.
I've only heard sample from "Into the Labarynth", enough to confirm it's pretty similar to their other stuff which I already have.
hope that helps . . .

Into the Labyrinth is the best one I think and the vinyl is supposed to be even better sounding. Spiritchaser is pretty good and the sound is very good. DCD is no longer together. There is a box set available with a DVD.

"Yulunga" from "Into The Labyrinth" is a demo quality track. Actually the entire CD is very well recorded. I can highly recommend the vinyl version of this as well. Kind of hard to find, but new copies of it surface from time to time, fifty to sixty bucks a pop though.

The live "Toward The Within" has live tracks of most of ITL as well as a couple of others.

The mysterious voice of "Dead Can Dance" is Lisa Gerrard, the same voice heard in the motion picture "Gladiator" and "Whale Rider".

Her first album is simply titled "This Mortal Coil," produced in 1983 and available in the USA on LP in 1984. It's a compilation of artists on the 4AD record label.

Shortly after that release, she became part of "Dead Can Dance, " supplying her magic on the following LP's.

1984. "Dead Can Dance" 4AD 
1985 "Spleen and Ideal" 4AD
1987 "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" 4AD
1988 "Serpent's Egg" 4AD
1999 "Aion" 4AD
1993 "Into the Labyrinth" 4AD
1994 "Toward the Within" [live] 4AD
1996 "Spiritchaser" 4AD

Lisa's success caused her to go out on here own but rumors are the group will get back together, including a USA and European tour this year. I saw them live about 1989 and was overwhelmed by their talent and musical performance.

The 1984 release of "This Mortal Coil", is worth looking for, here is the track line up for that album, the artists and the length of play.

1 "Kanga-Roo," Chilton (3:30)
2 "Song to the Siren," Beckett, Buckley (3:30)
3 "Holocaust," Chilton (3:38)
4 "Fyt," Fryer, Watts-Russell (4:23)
5 "Fond Affections," Rema, Rema (3:50)
6 "The Last Ray." Guthrie, Raymonde (4:08) 
7 "Another Day," Harper (2:54) 
8 "Waves Become Wings," Gerrard (4:25)
9 "Barramundi," Raymonde (3:56)
10 "Dreams Made Flesh." Gerrard (3:48)
11 "Not Me," Newman (3:44)
12 "A Single Wish." Raymonde, Sharp, Young (2:26)

As you can see, Lisa is responsible for only track 8 and contributions to other cuts, with fellow 4AD artists.

If you like this type of sound, these other artist have struggled along, making magic and mystical music like LIsa but failed to catch as much attention as "Dead Can Dance", which if you consider Lisa's recent motion picture music success as 'arriving', it took 20 years for much of the general public to know who she was.

Here are but a few of the other 4AD artists:
MODERN ENGLISH *
BAUHAUS
DIF JUZ *
IN CAMERA
COCTEAU TWINS *
COLOURBOX
XMAL DEUTSCHLAND *
CLAN OF XYMOX *
RICHENEL *
THROWING MUSES
XYMOX *
PIXIES
LUSH
PALE SAINTS
SPIREA X
RED HOUSE PAINTERS

I have all the starred (*) titles on LP and in general, the recordings are absolutely superb. Nice to see a thread about music.

Wow Albert, very nice suggestions. Looks like I have to upgrade my Dead can dance collection. I noticed Lisa's voice in Whalerider but did not know the connection to Dead can dance. Thanks for the post Warren. I had complete forgotten about this CD, not listened to it in two years and your post got me to pick it up again.

Rene