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        1986

        1. De Profundis
          Out of the Depths of Sorrow
        2. Ascension
        3. Circumradiant Dawn
        4. The Cardinal Sin
        5. Mesmerism
        6. Enigma of the Absolute
        7. Advent
        8. Avatar
        9. Indoctrination
          A Design for Living

          Cello: Gus Ferguson
          Cello: Martin McGarrick
          Timpani: James Pinker
          Timpani: Tony Ayres
          Trombone: Richard Avison
          Soprano on 'De Profundis': Andrew Hutton
          Violin: Carolyn Costin

          All other instruments and voices performed by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard

          Produced by Dead Can Dance and John A. Rivers
          Engineering by John A. Rivers and Jonathan Dee
          Recorded and mixed at Woodbine St. Recording Studios during September/November 1985

          Sleeve Photograph: Colin Grey
          Art Direction: Brendan Perry

          This record was mastered on to metal at The Townhouse

          Special Thanks to Julian and Maureen for their gracious hospitality



      • Lyrics

        • 4. The Cardinal Sin

            Sail to the stars on your shining desires.
            "Reasons?there are none" cried the whisky laden brain.
            "When all is said and done it amounts to just the same".
            There in your starry eyes lie hopes that have been betrayed.
            The cause of your desire can also lead to your demise.
            When all is said and done it will be you who pays the price
            as countless fools are often loathe to testify "it's an illusion of life,the whole cause of our demise".

            Sail to the stars on your shining desires.
            Lucretia waits in vain for the child of her dreams.
            Within her aching womb there burns a funeral pyre.
            There in your starry eyes lie hopes that have been betrayed.
            The prize that you claim can never be yours to take
            Like castles in Spain,hope is all that will remain.
            Abstain from the fools paradise, it's an illusion of life,the whole cause of our demise.
            Fools are often loathe to testify "it's an illusion of life,the whole cause of our demise".

            Contemplate the world and it's traitors to the soul.
            The forces of derision and their legions manifold.
            Usurpers of the crown,all pretenders to the throne,
            your world is linked in chains "All in one,One in all".

          5. Mesmerism

            Frail of heart renounce all fear.
            Locked away inside all these years.
            Remain in light,renounce all fears.
            For you have been mesmerised.
            Break this spell of silence.

          6. Enigma of the Absolute

            Saloman hung down her head
            laid bare her heart for the world to see.
            She craved for intimacy.
            Through darkened doors her aspect veiled with indecision,gazed out sea.
            She craved lucidity.

            Cast adrift fom past relationships in her life,
            hoisted up the ideal.This was her saving grace.
            Seas of rage that once assailed her concern for the truth
            had passed her by and left her high and dry in her saviours arms.

            Across the sea lies the fountain of renewal,
            where you will find the whole cause of your loneliness
            can be measured in dreams that transcend all these lies
            and I wish and I pray that there may come a day for a saviours arms.

          7. Advent

            In the hour of darkness our worlds collide.
            Assailed by a madness that has plagued our lives.
            At the point of departure on the eve despair'
            no recourse to reason seems to make any sense at all.

            The light of hope shines in your eyes.
            Dementia has gone,purged from inside.

            Throughout our wanderings in a land of lies.
            We fell from gods grace into a sea of storms.
            In self renovation,celebration of love.
            These both are virtues we seem to have left behind.

            The light of hope shines in your eyes.
            Dementia has gone purged from inside.

            Lay down your heart.Induce the will of love.
            To restore what little faith that you may have lost.
            As morning brings rebirth a new day will dawn to ease our troubled minds.
            Turn away on your side and dream of days to come.

          9. Indoctrination
          A Design for Living

            In times of great vexation when one must choose between what is right or wrong.
            Freedom,so they say,amounts to the choices you have made.
            Through all the arbitrary rationale concerning liberty.
            Freedom,I must say,exists within the unconditioned mind.
            Reason has come of age.
            How can you be satisfied with things the way they are,
            when all that surrounds us and so much more remains within the keepers dark embrace.

            The insatiable thirst for power has made;
            Idols out of mortals,
            Gods into clay,
            Soldiers into heroes,
            children into slaves of damned desire,
            their hopes betrayed.
            Who will suffer their laws that say you can't decide
            your childs education unless you pay the price.

            Who will suffer the laws
            Who will suffer their minds
            Who will suffer their words
            Who will suffer their designs.

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