Enraptured by Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices) since her earliest 4AD days after Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy slipped a cassette of the folk choir to the label’s founder Ivo Watts-Russell in the early ’80s, Lisa Gerrard wrote Dead Can Dance’s “The Host of Seraphim” off the band’s fourth album The Serpent’s Eggs (1988) upon being heavily drawn to the polyphonous sounds of the Balkan collective. “That piece was directly influenced by these new voices I heard, years and years before,” she says.
Knitting elements of the all-female choir and Bulgarian folklore into more lyrics—and around her contralto vocals—throughout the years, Gerrard, along with DCD keyboardist Jules Maxwell, welcomed the chance to work directly with the singers, and co-wrote several tracks for the group’s 2018 release BooCheeMish. Left with songs that never made the Bulgares’ album, Gerrard and Maxwell reclaimed seven tracks as their own on Burn, out May 7.
Tina Eves 