Live Review: Lisa Gerrard & Paul Grabowsky

Lisa Gerrard will always be fondly remembered for her work with seminal '80s outfit Dead Can Dance. Last year’s Dionysus continues to chart the career renaissance of an outfit that has always defied description. Lately Gerrard seems to be prolific as all hell, busying herself with a diverse selection of projects. Her 2018 album Hiraeth with David Kuckhermann scored a Grammy nomination for Best New Age Album. She also featured on last year’s Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares (The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices) album and, unfortunately for us, will be gigging around Europe for much of this year, with Dead Can Dance,  Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares, and as part of The World Of Hans Zimmer concert tour. In amongst all of this activity, Gerrard found the time to perform with Paul Grabowsky last year at the UKARIA Cultural Centre in South Australia, the pair reworking material from Gerrard’s extensive songbook. They bring that performance to Melbourne Recital Centre tonight.

When playing live, Gerrard usually wraps her dazzling vocals up in velveteen synthesised textures, but Grabowsky only provides Gerrard with minimal piano arrangements. There really is nowhere for Gerrard to hide here: the strength of tonight’s performance rests almost completely in her ability to flawlessly provide entrancing vocals.

Sanvean (I Am Your Shadow) starts slowly and cautiously, Gerrard caressing our ears with delicate and dreamy tones before her quivering contralto spectacularly takes flight into awe-inspiring magnificence. The stripped-back arrangements allow Gerrard to shine through the exquisite Cantara: much like Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins fame, Gerrard sings in a language of her own invention. While literal meaning is elusive, it's the emotion and drama in her voice that directly speaks to the audience, these songs abstractions that make their meaning apparent through the power of Gerrard’s presentation and how it makes listeners feel. This all comes together brilliantly in the fiery majesty of The Host Of Seraphim, which seems designed to blow our collective minds. It is one of the few times in tonight’s show where it feels like Grabowsky’s piano is expressing deep emotions rather than just placing a cool trickle of notes around Gerrard’s voice. Gerrard completely commands the audience’s attention with her astonishing vocals. She strikes a statuesque pose, with one hand on the lectern in front of her and the other over her heart, as she stares into space. Bringing us back down to earth ahead of intermission, Gerrard descends into a haunting cover of the old blues classic House Of The Rising Sun. While there isn’t much grit to Gerrard’s version, like many of her songs, there are darker and more sinister impulses driving this interpretation.

The second half of the show shifts away from reinterpreting Dead Can Dance tunes and surprisingly kicks off with Grabowsky’s Angel. Originally an instrumental piece, Gerrard adds her own original vocals and the results are startling dramatic for what was such a laidback tune. It segues into the brooding drama of Gerrard's Sacrifice, which rivals the intensity of The Host Of Seraphim. The dreamy presence of Yulunga (Spirit Dance) softens the mood. Sleep brings down the show to the sound of thunderous applause and a standing ovation. They encore with a stripped-back version of Now We Are Free where Grabowsky’s piano twinkles against Gerrard’s powerful and flawless vocals. The orchestral manoeuvres of the original seem almost unnecessary as the duo deliver the potent beauty and truth of this song. The song concludes a delightful showcase of their fine collaboration, which produced some of the most transcendent and beautiful music imaginable.