Yesterday, I listened to Dead Can Dance “Toward the Within” because, happily, it’s Dead Can Dance season again, and their music always helps me into the right moody mood for autumn. This song, “Cantara,” struck me as the proper anthem for my new year. The sort of warrior voice that echoes through this song, in Lisa Gerrard’s language, seem just what I need. I don’t usually choose battle metaphors, but this notion, the idea of preparing for battle, seems right for some reason. (Contradictory for a Libra, maybe.)
At the end of the video, Lisa Gerrard mentions her child’s pre-verbal state, and how the child sings, unfettered by the bounds of language. Maybe my war is with language, and I need to sing without words.
And I’ve been fascinated with death lately, fascinated with the full process that it is, and all that it implies. After listening to Gerrard and Brendan Perry, it seems like this song is my right anthem for now.
Rebecca Kuder 