The new record Dionysus is almost a theatre production, separated into two acts/tracks entitled ‘Act I’ and ‘Act II’. Both, however, are the simple titles of prolonged sequences containing distinct parts. ‘Act I’ progresses through ‘Sea Borne’ to ‘Dance Of The Bacchantes’. ‘Act II’ similarly features the same approach but is longer, comprised of four movements.
A lifetime has passed since the core of DCD, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, slinked around the Ballroom and Champion Hotel. In the years since DCD shuffled off from the Fitzroy Street bleak scene, they have become something of flag bearers of “world music”. Auditoriums now replace beer soaked carpets as they utilise
all sorts of novel instruments to create genre defying sounds. Based on the trance-like in both sound and movement, DCD blend everything together in a celebration of European pagan rituals.
Ironically, one can easily imagine Dionysus being received equally favourably in the farms of Eastern Europe as well as the concert halls of world renown.
This is really a recording where it is improper to isolate separate pieces from the whole. That would be akin to asking a toothless person to bite an apple. Listen to the whole and allow Dionysus to explode into your conscience.
