When I reviewed Peter Ulrich’s newest album, Enter the Mysterium, an unexpected thing happened. Ulrich contacted me to say he appreciated elements of the review, and mildly took issue with other aspects. Ulrich noted that I was a Dead Can Dance fan (with whom he once played drums and percussion with), and suggested I might like his first album, Pathways and Dawns because it was produced by DCD’s Brendan Perry.
He was right about me enjoying Pathways and Dawns more than Enter the Mysterium. What I truly love about the piece is its compositional strength. In some ways, this is the album that Dead Can Dance never made, and Perry’s influence runs throughout the album like a clear freshwater stream playfully dancing through a dank, dark forest. Perry and Ulrich work well together. Ulrich is the musical architect for each piece, giving Perry a solid foundation to construct upon. Each song has its own developed character and is extremely different from the other. The first track, "Taqaharu's Leaving," is quite different from "Always Dancing" that follows it, and has more of a Brian Eno-esque quality to it from somewhere in his Before and After Science phase. "Life Amongst the Black Sheep" is my favorite among all the songs. I love Ulrich’s and Perry’s use of Celtic instrumentation and imagery. These are just a few examples, but overall each piece resonates with tremendous interplay between instruments, and highlighted by the vocals.
I also found the lyrical content on Pathways and Dawns to be much more interesting. Many of the songs seem to revolve around ritualistic themes; some are more or less love and relationship songs. For me, the true test of an album is how long it sticks with me after I listen to it, and the songs on Pathways and Dawns stay with me while walking to bus stops, reading magazines during lunch, and while falling asleep at night. Ulrich proves he’s quite able to write simple and complex songs which are felt deeply by the listener.
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