Brendan Perry - Ark

Brendan Perry - Founding member of the late, groundbreaking progressive/world music duo Dead Can Dance (with Lisa Gerrard) returns with his second album in a dozen years...out last year in the U.K., the solo project finally gets proper U.S. distribution // Release: Ark (May 24, The End Records) // Sounds like: Perry handles all the instruments himself, building atop an atmospheric and ethereal electronica foundation... this is ambient music drawn on a grand scale as slow simmering, slow motion plugged-in explorations (averaging 7 minutes per track) encompass sampling, drifting, muted psychedelica and Perry's richly textured baritone // Quote: "Ark is not really a concept album in the traditional sense of the term, but rather a series of sustained observations and commentaries on the human condition...Practically all the instrumentation on Ark is derived from sample libraries and synthesizers. This was a conscious creative decision on my part as I wanted to imbue the music with the ambience of a neutral electronic soundscape which would in turn mirror a world that is becoming increasingly more dependent upon machines to perform tasks for us." // What we like: the "single artisan" approach by Perry, working mostly in isolation, has yielded an audacious project that sometimes -- as on the boldly dramatic "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" -- sounds like Vangelis' Bladerunner soundtrack with moody, contemplative vocals...

Brendan Perry - "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (from Ark)