Karimouche Spleen

With this amazing album, Dead Can Dance fully took the plunge into the heady mix of musical traditions that would come to define its sound and style for the remainder of its career. The straightforward goth affectations are exchanged for a sonic palette and range of imagination. Calling it "haunting" and "atmospheric" barely scratches even the initial surface of the album's power. The common identification of the duo with a consciously medieval European sound starts here – quite understandable, when one considers the mystic titles of songs, references to Latin, choirs, and other touches that make the album sound like it was recorded in an immense cathedral.

Spleen Arcana is born from the ashes of past musical projects led by Julien Gaullier, a self taught multi-instrumentalist from France who composes music at home since 1994. Inspired by vintage progressive rock and musical heroes like Marillion, Anathema, Radiohead or Mike Oldfield, Julien decides to release a first album on his own, playing any instruments he could get his hands on and starting to record every note he wrote with the equipment he found around him. Helped later by David Perron on the drums and Marie Guillaumet for additionnal vocals. Years passed, songs evolved, sound changed, some equipment even broke. The result of this chaotic musical adventure, called The Field Where She Died, is a raw but sincere first album coming from a long passionate process.