Rajna is best characterized by their mystic, Dead Can Dance-like approach to music with historical and multi-cultural flavours. Their music is more exotic and less stylized than DCD. Over time, Rajna has released 5 albums of music from which this anthology draws from. With 9 songs of representation and 5 exclusively included tunes recorded specifically for this compilation including an industrial remix version of “Buried Philae,” Black Tears is a collection of the first 6 years of Rajna.
Rajna is the husband/wife duo of Jeanne and Fabrice Lefebvre, with Jeanne handling the vocals and Fabrice doing all of the music and arrangements. The songs are gorgeously sweeping in every respect with plenty of percussive art and Gerrard-like vocals, which, is not attainable by just anybody; the vocal art alone sets Jeanne Lefebvre apart from just about any female counterpart in the world doing this rare type of music (who else can do this but DCD and Rajna.) With the beauty of ancient music from cultures long lost, Dark Tears provides to you, the listener, with music that commands more than one spin. It is a sampler of exoticism that hypnotically draws you in as it transports you through various timeframes and places long untouched.
In addition to the representative tracks, the new unreleased music recorded for this anthology include an edit and album track of the title name, “Black Tears,” several rare tracks uncovered and included (“Sien,” “Shushai”,) and the remix of “Buried Philae” that shows how far a song from Rajna can travel.
This anthology is a great set that will not only assuage your much needed DCD fix, but also unveil to you the only worthy successor to the crown that DCD fashioned. As a matter of fact, Rajna does DCD in “Cantara” from the latter’s Within The Realm of a Dying Sun (1987) as perfect as it gets. If you loved Dead Can Dance, you’ll be insane over the discovery of Rajna and Black Tears is the perfect introduction.
