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

4. The Cardinal Sin
Sail to the stars on your shining desires

Reasons there are none
Try the whisky made of grain
When all is said and done
It all 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
Its 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 desires
Fools are often loathe to testify
It's an illusion of life
The whole cause of our demise

Contemplate the world
And its traitors to the soul
The forces of derision
And its legions manifold
Usurpers of the crown
All pretenders to the throne
Your world has lived in chains
All in one, one in all (x9)

Fools are often loathe to testify
It's an illusion of life
The whole cause of our demise
It's an illusion of life (x4)


5. Mesmerism
Brave your heart
Renounce your fears
Locked away inside
All these years

Remain in light
Renounce your fears
For you have been
Mesmerized

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 to sea, she craved lucidity

Cast adrift from past relationships in her life
Hoisted up the ideal, this was her saving grace
Sea's of rage that once assailed her concern for the truth
Had passed her by and left her high and dry
In her saviour's arms...(x4)

Across the sea lies the fountain of renewal
Where you will see the whole cause of your lonliness
Can be measured in dreams that transcend all these lies
And I wish and I pray that there may come a day
For a saviour's arms...(x4)


7. Advent
In the hour of darkness
Our worlds collide
Assailed by madness
That has plagued our lives
At the point of departure
On the eve of despair
Your recourse to reason
Seems to make no sense at all

Refrain
The light of hope
Shines in your eyes
Dementia has gone
Purged from inside

Throughout our wand'rings
In a land of lies
We fell from God's grace
Into a sea of storms
In the self-relevation
Celebration of love
These both are virtues
We seem to have left behind

Refrain
Refrain

Lay bare your heart
Induce the will of love
To restore what little faith
That you may have lost
As morning brings re-birth
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's right and 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 unconditioned minds

Reason has come of age

How can you be satisfied with things the way they are
When all that surrounds us now and so much more
Remains inside the keeper's dark embrace?
The insatiable thirst for power has made
Idols out of mortals, gods into clay
Soldiers into heros, children into slaves
All damned
Desires
Their hopes betrayed

Who will suffer the laws
That State can decide your child's education
Unless you pay the price?

Refrain (x2)
Who will suffer their laws?
Who will suffer their minds?
Who will suffer their words?
Who will suffer their designs?

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