Does the Dead Can Dance song "Carnival of Light" mean anything?

Question

I know Lisa Gerrard sings in an invented language that has no relation to any language in the real world, sometimes referred to as idioglossia or glossalalia, but she seems to suggest that the random phonemes she sings have some meaning to her. Has she, or Brendan Perry, ever spoken about what the song "Carnival of Light" means, if anything?

Note: "Carnival of Light" first appeared on the band's EP "The Garden of the Arcane Delights", and was later included on rereleases of their self titled debut album.

Answer 1

Maybe it's the same carnival that Brendan sings is 'Over' on Into The Labyrinth and also on the live Toward The Within. Maybe the latter is talking about their personal relationship, which by then was all but over (though it would be stretching it to say so was the earlier song). But given that at this point Lisa was, as you say, singing mainly sounds (like Liz Fraser) over clattering drums, hammer dulcimer and psaltery, it's unlikely to mean anything much more than "watch out for us, we're going to be fantastic".

Answer 2

Within the wonderful vocal and sound universe of this group, there are songs in which it seems to me that I understand some loose phrases, and I think: it can't be, is this Catalan?, in this song it seems to me that it says "En la Terra del demà s'hi està bé' (on tomorrow's land -or tomorrow's Earth- all is ok); There is another song I don't remember exactly wich, that seems medieval, which seems to me sung in Catalan too. I don't know if this is helpful for you, if anything, it looks great to me. Maybe this language is not very knowed, and it can be used as a vocal system to make music like an instrument, and also has an ancient caracter, in the line of Dead Can Dance songs. Greetings from Barcelona.