Delerium
Country of origin:
Canada
Type of music generally:
Ethereal, ambient ectronica with some world music influences
Status:
Most recent release, Mythologie (2016)
See also:
Delerium's Facebook pageThe Ectophiles' Guide entries for guest vocalists Kristy Thirsk and Sarah McLachlan
Comparisons:
Enigma; This Mortal Coil, Deep Forest
Covers/own material:
Own material
General comments:
I put on Delerium if I want something trippy. (rholmes@cs.stanford.edu)For what it's worth, I have never had much tolerance for bands like enigma and deep forest, but I really like that Delerium disc. The former bands tend to take some sort of cool sample of interesting music from somewhere in the world and surround it with mundane electronic dance stuff. The song tends to work a bit for me anyway, but it's all on the basis of the brilliant sample. I hear it and always think, boy, wouldn't I rather be listening to the Baka Pygmy people or whoever is the original.
Delerium, on the other hand, seems to really build up the music, and I think it stands on its own. They also seem to work with a lot more live performers, so that the music doesn't feel archival, but alive. (neal)if can remember correctly from the article blurb i read about Delerium, Karma was their 8th album to date. their earlier albums are a little more goth like if i remember correctly. my friend who i gave the Karma album to raved and raved and raved about the album to me, he even taped it so that he could listen to it nonstop in the car. (iflin@speakeasy.net)
um, let's see...besides semantic spaces and Karma (which are the only ones with vocals), there is also Syrophenikan, faces, forms and illusions, morpheus, stone tower and i think one other one. i haven't heard any of the early pre-nettwerk records, but am told that Syrophenikan is the best of the bunch. the delerium guys (bill leeb and rhys fuller) are more or less the same thing as frontline assembly. delerium is their soundscape stuff and frontline is their industrial death disco stuff. (woj@smoe.org)
Recommended first album:
Karma
Recordings:
- Faces, Forms & Illusions (1989)
- Morpheus (1989)
- Syrophenikan (1990)
- Stone Tower (1991)
- Spiritual Archives (1991)
- Spheres (1994)
- Spheres 2 (1994)
- Semantic Spaces (1994)
- Karma (1997)
- Poem (2000)
- Chimera (2003)
- Nuages du Monde (2006)
- Fauxliage (2007)
- Remixed: Definitive Collection (remix compilation, 2010)
- Voice: An Acoustic Collection (compilation, 2010)
- Music Box Opera (2012)
- Mythologie (2016)
Semantic Spaces
Release info:
1994—Nettwerk—W2-30092
Availability:
Widely available
Ecto priority:
Recommended
Group members:
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fuller
Guest artists:
Kristy Thirsk—vocals
Produced by:
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fuller
Comments:
another good sort of "in the background" album. not overly original but decent earbubblegum, Front Line Assembly goes for a 2 week technambient holiday on the continent... (winona@mildh.pair.com)From a Rose Chronicles fan's point-of-view, 'Flowers Become Screens' and 'Incantation' are the only good songs on Semantic Spaces. From an Enigma fan's point-of-view, almost the whole album is wonderful—with Kristy Thirsk's "angelic voice" as an added bonus. Being fans of both groups, I would also recommend 'Flatlands' on that album. They sampled Kristy's voice into the song and it sounds wonderfully haunting. (ljk1@cec.wustl.edu)
Karma
Release info:
1997—Nettwerk
Availability:
Widely available
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Group members:
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fuller
Guest artists:
Sarah McLachlan—vocals
Kristy Thirsk—vocals
Camille Henderson—vocals
Jacqui Hunt—vocals
Produced by:
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fuller
Comments:
This being Friday night, I was listening to WPKN and I heard something really cool: a Delerium song called "Silence" featuring Sarah McLachlan on some *killer* vocals. I *need* that Delerium song. (meth@smoe.org)Absolutely incredible. I can't believe this group exists, and has so many albums, and hasn't gotten the popularity that Enigma has...Delerium plays with a lot of the same techniques that Enigma does, but creates far more complex and intricate musical tapestries than anything Enigma has done...and the vocals are incredible throughout—Kirsty Thirsk, while she stands out in Rose Chronicles from her mediocre guitar band, gets to shine with the ethereal, atmospheric backing she gets here, and Camille Henderson is wonderful. (Eric_Starker)
For me the real higlights, the most precious moments on this CD are the contributions from Kirsty Thirsk. (afries@zip.com.au)
I'd really recommend the new Delerium album to any Sarah McLachlan fan. The album as a whole is pretty good, and Kristy Thirsk does some great vocals, but the one song with Sarah singing, "Silence", just blows everything else away. I would have glady paid the price of the whole album just for that one song—plus it's over 6 minutes long! (bye@humnet.ucla.edu)
I picked up a copy of Delerium's limited edition 2-CD set of Karma today. I'm such a fan of this album I decided I really wanted the 2 extra songs and multi-media stuff that comes on the second disc, and I was lucky enough to find a store with one copy left. One of the bonus tracks is a wonderful contiunuation of the sound on Karma. I think it's Kristy Thirsk singing on this one, but there are no liner notes for the second disc to verify that. The second bonus track is a long, atmospheric peace, a little more Nature Company-ish than the rest of the album. The multimedia portion has pretty typical brief bios etc., but gives some tidbits of info I didn't know about the band and guests. (carnivore@bigfoot.com)
I only have their last album, Karma, which has a lot of guest vocalists on it. They played the song that Sarah McLachlan sings on the radio (Silence). It's got an interesting mix of world music stuff, combined in interesting ways with more electronic stuff. (neal)
Yeah it's a Nettwerk album, and damn it's good! (nkg@nettwerk.com)
must admit that i did buy Karma on the strength of the single which featured Sarah McLachlan but haven't been disappointed yet. the music reminds me strongly of enigma at times but i am also reminded of deep forest sometimes. so if you like that style of music, i recommend you check this cd out. (slfechner@start.com.au)
Karma is a great, great, great CD. . . All of it is awesome. (Songbird22@aol.com)
Thanks to Sarah Morayati for work on this entry.
