Lisa Gerrard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lisa Gerrard
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Gerrard with Dead Can Dance, 2012
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lisa Germaine Gerrard |
| Born | 12 April 1961 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Genres |
|
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels |
|
| Associated acts |
|
Lisa Germaine Gerrard, born on April 12, 1961, is an Australian musician, singer, and composer. She is famous for her unique singing style and is a member of the music group Dead Can Dance with her partner Brendan Perry. Lisa has a powerful and deep voice, which can cover three octaves.
She grew up in Melbourne and was a key part of the city's early music scene. Before Dead Can Dance, she was the lead singer of a band called Microfilm. In 1981, she helped start Dead Can Dance. With Brendan Perry, she explored many different music styles, creating a sound known as "neoclassical dark wave." She often sings in a special language she invented herself, which she calls the "language of the Heart." Besides singing, Lisa also plays instruments, especially the yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer.
Lisa Gerrard released her first solo album, The Mirror Pool, in 1995. Since then, she has worked on many projects with other artists like Pieter Bourke, Patrick Cassidy, Klaus Schulze, Hans Zimmer, and Ennio Morricone. She has also created music for many award-winning movies.
By 2020, Lisa Gerrard had released four solo albums and worked on sixteen other albums. She has composed music or helped with the scores for over 48 films. She won a Golden Globe Award for the music of the 2000 film Gladiator, which she worked on with Hans Zimmer. She also won an ARIA award and an APRA Screen Music Award for her music in the film Balibo. Overall, she has won 11 awards and received 23 nominations. She has also been nominated for a Grammy Award twice.
Contents
Early Life and Music Beginnings
Lisa Gerrard was born in Melbourne, Australia. Her parents were immigrants from Ireland. She grew up in Prahran, a part of Melbourne with many Greek families. She remembers hearing "Mediterranean music blaring out of the houses." She says this music greatly influenced her own work, especially in later Dead Can Dance albums and her solo projects.
Lisa started forming bands and writing her own music in Melbourne's "Little Band scene." This was an experimental music movement that happened between 1978 and 1981. It was here that she first met Brendan Perry, who would later become her partner in Dead Can Dance. Brendan Perry once said he thought her music was "too avant-garde" (meaning very new and experimental) at first. He remembered a song where she sang about finding a man and asking her mother if she could keep him in her wardrobe, while playing a Chinese dulcimer with bamboo sticks. Around this time, Lisa became the lead singer of the band Microfilm. They released a single called "Centrefold" in 1980.
Music Career Highlights
Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance started as a four-person band in Melbourne in 1981. The original members were Lisa Gerrard, Brendan Perry, Paul Erikson, and Simon Monroe. In 1982, Lisa, Brendan, and Paul moved to London, but Simon stayed in Australia, making the band a trio.
The band took a break in 1998 but got back together in 2005 for a world tour. In 2012, they announced another world tour and released a new album called Anastasis. Two of Dead Can Dance's albums, Spiritchaser (1996) and Anastasis (2012), both reached number one on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart.
Dead Can Dance released seven studio albums with the 4AD Records label, starting with their self-titled album Dead Can Dance in 1984. They also released two studio albums with PIAS Recordings.
Solo and Collaborative Work
In 1995, Lisa Gerrard released her first solo album, The Mirror Pool, with the Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra. This album reached No. 38 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart.
In 1998, she worked with composer Pieter Bourke on the album Duality. This album reached No. 23 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart. Duality was the start of many collaborations for film music, including the movies The Insider and Ali.
Lisa started a new collaboration with composer Patrick Cassidy in 2004, releasing the album Immortal Memory. They also worked together on film music, such as for Salem's Lot.
In 2006, a documentary about Lisa Gerrard's life and work, called Sanctuary, was released. It included interviews with Lisa and people she had worked with, like Michael Mann, Russell Crowe, and Hans Zimmer.
Later in 2006, Lisa released her second solo album, The Silver Tree. This album was different from her earlier work and was her first album not released by 4AD Records. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart.
In 2007, a collection of her best songs, The Best of Lisa Gerrard, was released. It included music from Dead Can Dance, her solo work, and film scores. She also went on a world tour that year, performing in Australia for the first time. In November 2007, Lisa worked with German electronic musician Klaus Schulze on the album Farscape. They later toured Europe together.
In 2009, Lisa Gerrard started her own record label, Gerrard Records. This label helps release her new music and supports other talented artists. Her third solo album, The Black Opal, was the first release from her new label. It featured collaborations with Patrick Cassidy and Pieter Bourke.
In 2010, Lisa released Departum with composer Marcello De Francisci. She also worked with Prash Mistry on the song "Spirit Guide." In July 2014, she released another solo album, Twilight Kingdom, which included collaborations with Daniel Johns and Russell Crowe. This album reached No. 5 on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart.
In 2018, Lisa worked on BooCheeMish, an album with the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices. She helped write some of the songs, making sure to keep the choir's unique sound. She also teamed up with percussionist David Kuckhermann to create the album Hiraeth, which was nominated for a Best New Age Album in 2019.
In 2019, she collaborated again with Yordan Kamdzhalov and Genesis Orchestra for a new recording of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3, released in 2020.
Film Music Career
Lisa Gerrard's first experience making music for a film was in 1989 for the Spanish movie El Niño de la Luna. Dead Can Dance composed the music, and Lisa also acted in the film.
She became well-known as a film composer after working on The Insider in 1999 with Pieter Bourke, and Gladiator in 2000 with Hans Zimmer. The music for Gladiator was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for both composers. Lisa's music for the New Zealand film Whale Rider was made entirely of her solo material.
In 2005, Lisa worked with Ennio Morricone on the film Fateless. She also contributed to the soundtrack of Baraka, a visual film about humanity's impact on Earth. She collaborated with Denez Prigent on the song "Gortoz a ran – J'attends," which was used in the movie Black Hawk Down.
In 2009, Lisa wrote the music for Balibo, winning awards for Best Feature Film Score. She also contributed her voice to the theme song for the Japanese TV drama Ryōmaden. In 2010, she completed the music for Tears of Gaza with Marcello De Francisci and for Oranges and Sunshine, which earned her another nomination.
In November 2010, Lisa provided vocals and extra music for the film Priest. In 2011, she finished the music for Burning Man, winning Best Music Score at the 2012 Film Critics Circle of Australia awards.
The song "Now We Are Free" from the Gladiator soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, was very popular. In 2015, her vocals were featured in the video game Armello. She also collaborated with Chicane on the album The Sum of Its Parts.
In 2021, she worked on the film scores for Man of God and Dune. She also contributed to Dune: Part Two and the trailer for Gladiator II in 2024.
Lisa Gerrard's Unique Voice
.jpg)
Lisa Gerrard has a deep, powerful voice known as a contralto. She can also sing higher, into the mezzo-soprano range. Her voice has been described as "rich, deep," creating a "mournful sound," and critics often say her voice is "simply not of this world."
She sings some songs in English, but many are in a special language she created herself. She calls this her "language of the Heart." She has said, "I sing in the language of the Heart. [...] It's an invented language that I've had for a very long time. I believe I started singing in it when I was about 12. Roughly that time. And I believed that I was speaking to God when I sang in that language."
Lisa's early singing was influenced by the techniques of Bulgarian choirs. The conversations and music she heard growing up in Melbourne, especially from the large Greek and Turkish communities, also influenced the language she sings. Her father, who sang traditional Irish "sean-nós" songs, also influenced her.
In a 2012 interview, Lisa explained that her artistic soul meant she couldn't stop or control her singing. She said, "You're born with that. It's in your blood. So these influences are coming to the work. It's not traditional Seanos [SIC] singing, but it's my response to the Seanos [SIC] singing in my abstract languages."
Awards and Recognitions
Lisa Gerrard has received many awards and nominations for her incredible music.
- She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film Gladiator in 2001. She was also nominated for The Insider (2000) and Ali (2002).
- She won an ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack Album for Balibo in 2009.
- She has won multiple APRA Screen Music Awards for Best Feature Film Score, including for Balibo (2009) and Burning Man (2012).
- She has been nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Score Soundtrack Album for Gladiator in 2001, and Best New Age Album for Hiraeth in 2019.
- Other awards include the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Score for Gladiator (2000), the Satellite Award for Best Original Score for Gladiator (2001), and the NZTV Award for Best Original Music for Whale Rider (2003). She also won Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards for Best Music Score for One Perfect Day (2004), Balibo (2010), and Burning Man (2012).
Discography
- The Mirror Pool (1995)
- Duality (1998) (with Pieter Bourke)
- The Silver Tree (2006)
- The Black Opal (2009)
- Twilight Kingdom (2014)
- BooCheeMish, collaboration with the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices (2018)
- Hiraeth, Lisa Gerrard & David Kuckhermann (2018)
- Górecki Symphony No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, with Genesis Orchestra & Yordan Kamdzhalov (2020)
Filmography
- 1989 – Moon Child
- 1994 – Toward the Within
- 1999 – The Insider
- 2000 – Gladiator
- 2000 – Mission: Impossible 2
- 2001 – Ali
- 2002 – Whale Rider
- 2004 – Layer Cake
- 2004 – Man on Fire
- 2006 – Sanctuary
- 2011 – InSight
- 2015 – Tanna
- 2017 – 2:22
- 2021 – Man of God
- 2021 – Dune
- 2024 – Dune: Part Two
- 2024 - Gladiator II (trailer and song "Now We Are Free").
See also
In Spanish: Lisa Gerrard para niños
