4AD Further Listening / Lisa Gerrard (Soundtracks and Scores)

Lisa Gerrard

After the breakup of Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard concentrated on a career of soundtracks and scores, working on such films as The Insider, Gladiator, Tears of the Sun and Ashes and Snow. While the films were not always successful, the soundtracks were always amazing. Here is a collection of Lisa's filmworks.
Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke / The Insider OST
Released October 26, 1999

try it

Michael Mann is an unconventional director, so it's entirely appropriate that the score for The Insider, his meditation on tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, doesn't play by the rules either. The bulk of the album is comprised of collaborations between Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke, with three tracks from Graeme Revell and equally atmospheric contributions from Gustavo Santaolalla, Jan Garbarek, and Massive Attack. The result is eerie and haunting, somewhere between ambient and new age, but always evocative and cinematic. This may be a strange choice for a seemingly dry journalism tale, but it works terrifically and gives a good sense of how unusual and unpredictable The Insider is. - All Music Guide

Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard / Gladiator OST
Released April 25, 2000

try it

The original soundtrack to Ridley Scott's Gladiator features an original score composed by Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer and Golden Globe nominee and former Dead Can Dance member Lisa Gerrard. The duo's dramatic music incorporates traditional orchestral elements, ancient and indigenous instruments, and Gerrard's haunting vocals to create a timeless and evocative backdrop for Scott's tale of an avenging gladiator in ancient Rome.- All Music Guide

Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke / Ali OST
Recorded April 01, 2002

try it

This is the second album in the ALI soundtrack series. A lot of people and music stores refer to this as being the 'score', but if you are looking for grand orchestral pieces and epic cinematic arias, then I'm afraid, you'll be disappointed. What we get with Original Soundtrack II is basically that. Another soundtrack in the same formula as part 1, but on a smaller scale, and with none of those annoying 'inspired by' tracks. Mainly here, is a representation of the film's underscore and instrumental material, from Martin Tillman, Dungeon East & Whild Peach, along with 5 cuts of original score composed by Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke. There is also a sneaky 4 extra songs, which for some reason were omitted from the original album. But that is what makes it worthwhile. (taken from reader review at amazon.com)

Hans Zimmer / Tears of the Sun (Lisa Gerrard credited on all tracks)
Released March 18, 2003

try it

Although Hans Zimmer receives nominal credit, Tears of the Sun is in fact a collaborative effort featuring contributions from the composer's Media Ventures colleagues including Lebo M., Steve Jablonsky, and Heitor Pereira -- the end result channels some unexpected ethnic influences into an otherwise by the book war film score reliant more on its emotional scope than its action themes. While African percussion and chants enliven several cues, Tears of the Sun is above all dominated by a palpable sense of melancholy -- little here echoes the heroic, larger than life scale of war scores past, and all vestiges of patriotism are superseded by post-9/11 angst. It's certainly unexpected, especially given Zimmer's affection for bombast, but it works.- All Music Guide

Lisa Gerrard and Jeff Rona / A Thousand Roads
Released August 23, 2005

try it

Commissioned by the Smithsonian Museum of Native Americans in Washington D.C, the hypnotic 43-minute film A Thousand Roads follows four contemporary Native Americans through a single crisis-filled day. Director Chris Eyre (Smoke Signals), after hearing composer Lisa Gerrard's atmospheric soundtrack to 2002's Whale Rider, asked the singer, along with Los Angeles-based composer Jeff Rona (Traffic, Black Hawk Down) to provide the short film's soundtrack. Fans of Gerrard will find much to love here, as the talented other half of Dead Can Dance adapts seamlessly to genre, layering her ethereal vocals over Rona's tasteful electronics, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and flutists R. Carlos Nakai and Douglas Spotted Eagle. - All Music Guide

Various / Ashes and Snow OST
Released 2005

try it

Gregory Colbert's photographic artworks capture extraordinary moments of contact between man and animal. Gregory Colbert has spent thirteen years filming and photographing elephants, whales, birds, and other animals in such places as India, Burma, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Namibia, Egypt, the island of Dominica, Tonga, and Antarctica. Ashes and Snow, Colbert's lifelong project, is a collaboration with animals in their natural habitat as they interact with human beings. His images attempt to remove the boundaries between humans and other species to re-awaken in us an understanding of our shared animal nature.

01. Devota - Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy
02. Pasadena - Michael Brook
03. Slow River - Michael Brook
04. Mater Mea - Djivan Gasparyan
05. Vespers - Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy
06. Womb - Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy
07. Slow Dawn - David Darling
08. Elephant Pond - Michael Brook and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
09. The Absence Of Time - Eastwestern String Ensemble
10. Wisdom - Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy
11. Tears Of Light - Temple of Sound & Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali
12. Badnamgar - Robert Een
13. Salomon Rossi Suite - Aether Strings