Brendan Perry, former co-leader of the seminal 4AD act Dead Can Dance, is slated next week to drop his first solo album in 11 years -- and it promises new, if challenging, territory from the genre-defying musician/songwriter...

Ark is a collection of eight tracks -- six new; two introduced during DCD's 2005 reunion tour -- all written, performed, recorded and produced virtually alone by Perry and employing digitally sampled instruments and sounds nearly exclusively. Perry suggests the production of Ark reflects our growing estrangement from the world around us in deference to engagement (and perhaps regress) through technologies. The album's compositions take up related ground, exploring themes of identity, alienation, corruption and humanity's mounting threat to itself and the planet. But lest Perry's welcome return be sullied with despair, "there are also expressions of great hope and optimism for a better world to be found within the subtext of the songs," he shares. "For an ark as well as being a refuge from the world's harsher realities is also a vehicle for regeneration and renewal."

Loyalists may find Perry's new direction takes some getting used to. Snippets from http://ark.brendan-perry.com/ boast something more akin to the ambient electronica of Brian Eno or Trevor Horn than the guitar-laden live playing of Perry's 1999 Eye of the Hunter or the indigenous musical archeology of DCD's repertoire. But where Hunter's world was decidedly inward, meditative and pampering, longtime fans may appreciate Ark's slight return to the somewhat more soaring and proclamatory soundscapes of DCD's catalog... only now courtesy of Akai and Pro Tools.

Ark sets sail on June 7 and is available for pre-order at amazon.com, play.com and cookingvinylstore.com.

Tracklist:
Babylon (formerly "Saffron")
The Bogus Man
Wintersun
Utopia
Inferno
This Boy
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Crescent



[Edited 6/4/10 12:20pm]