Her musical journey began in the early 1980s when she and fellow Australian Brendan Perry formed duo ‘Dead Can Dance’. In 2012 the band reunited for a sell-out world tour. With nine albums released between 1984 and 1995, the duo’s musical canvas expanded with each release to take in a timeless mix of world-music influences, medieval chants, folk ballads, baroque stylings, Celtic flavours, electronics, samples and anything else that took their fancy. Several solo and collaborative albums were well received and Lisa made a natural progression to composing for films.

Lisa’s film work includes ‘Whale Rider’, a feature which received an Academy Award nomination and garnered Lisa an international award for the score. In 2009 she scored the highly acclaimed feature ‘Balibo’ for which she won the 2009 Screen Music Award for Best Feature Film Score, an Aria Award and 3 further nominations. In 2011 she completed the score for ‘Burning Man’ which won her Best Music Score at the 2011 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. In 2016 she collaborated with Marcello De Francisci on the score for the feature ‘Jane Got a Gun’ directed by Gavin O’Connor and starring Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor.

Lisa has collaborated with James Orr on a number of scores, including Paul Currie’s 2016 thriller ‘2:22’. In 2017 they completed the score to ‘West of Sunshine’, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2019 they scored the television series ‘Secret Bridesmaids’ Business’, which aired in Australia on Channel 7. The original soundtrack for the series was released with Air-Edel Records. Most recently, Lisa collaborated with Lorenzo Esposito to co-compose and perform vocals on ‘100 Preludi’, directed by Alessandra Pescetta. The film premiered at Sguardi Altrove Film Festival in 2024.

Lisa’s vocal performances continue to be heard across the world. She performed as part of ‘Gladiator Live’ at The Royal Albert Hall in London in 2018 and as part of ‘The World of Hans Zimmer – A Symphonic Celebration’ tour. Lisa and David Kuckhermann received a Grammy nomination for ‘Best New Age Album’ for ‘Hiraeth’, which was released on Besant Hall Records, sub-label of Air-Edel Records in August 2018. In 2021 and 2024 she was a Featured Vocalist on the score for ‘Dune’ and ‘Dune: Part Two’, directed by Denis Villeneuve.