Lisa Gerrard
The Black Opal

How long does it take to realize you've had a nightmare?

Lisa Gerrard, as we know, is someone who digs into your soul with her voice without asking for permission. Hit play and it's done.

After reviving memories and sounds from the past in many Dead Can Dance episodes, after embarking on a successful solo career filled with collaborations, it's time to face the future.

Arrangements by pianist Michael Edwards, featuring synths, drums, and strings that support a relentless rhythm somewhere between restless and epic (The Crossing).

This album The Black Opal is one to be absorbed slowly. Technique and emotion are two elements the lady has always blended with class over three decades of activity; there's no cause for surprise.

Search Of Lost Innocence, dark and menacing, with her pushing her notes lower than ever before. An inner examination that seems to demand nocturnal sweat. The orchestra makes Redemption sound mournful, while there's a slight elevation in the overall mood in The Serpent & The Dove (thanks to the clean, steady, and crystalline guitar).

Even when she sings in English, Lisa evokes. Here's Black Forest repeating "you don’t love me", disappearing into the darkness somewhere, who knows in which corner. I consider it magnificent in every aspect, a complete immersion that makes you reflect. The lounge and rhythmic cover of All Along The Watchtower is interesting and unexpected but doesn't strike as much as the grand finale.

Sleep (previously known in the mother band's live repertoire as Hymn For The Fallen) wakes us from the nightmare.

In the end, you can't expect much positivity from a cover depicting a bleeding dolphin. The environmentalist message is clear, but it also conveys the suffering atmosphere.

This time Lisa doesn't paint the ocean's vastness, but rather the inner fragility, and despite everything, you await nothing but the night's return, to travel within your memories and to demand complete self-knowledge.