A Passage in Time is a compilation album by Australian musical act Dead Can Dance. It was originally released in North America on 21 October 1991 by Rykodisc, in the United Kingdom on 4 November 1991 by 4AD, and was later remastered and given an Australian release in 1995.
The album was titled after the song "A Passage in Time", which originally appeared on the group's eponymous debut album in 1984 but was not included in the collection.
By 1993, the album had sold 60,000 copies in the United States according to Soundscan.
Overview As the title suggests, this album was "a passage in time" to enable the U.S. audience catch up with the band's previous albums, via selected songs.
The content of the compilation was predominantly taken from the band's most recent works at the time, their fourth (The Serpent's Egg) and fifth (Aion) albums. It also featured two songs from their third album (Within the Realm of a Dying Sun) and one from their second (Spleen and Ideal), but no selections from their debut or the Garden of the Arcane Delights EP. Two previously unreleased tracks were included, "Bird" and "Spirit" (both were later added to the double vinyl version of 1993's Into the Labyrinth).
Track listing
Title Album Year 1 "Saltarello" 2:36 Aion 1990 2 "Song of Sophia" 1:23 The Serpent's Egg 1988 3 "Ullyses" [sic] 4:53 The Serpent's Egg 1988 4 "Cantara" 5:52 Within the Realm of a Dying Sun 1987 5 "The Garden of Zephirus" 1:19 Aion 1990 6 "Enigma of the Absolute" 4:12 Spleen and Ideal 1985 7 "Wilderness" 1:23 Aion 1990 8 "The Host of Seraphim" 6:17 The Serpent's Egg 1988 9 "Anywhere Out of the World" 5:05 Within the Realm of a Dying Sun 1987 10 "The Writing on My Father's Hand" 3:50 The Serpent's Egg 1988 11 "Severance" 3:21 The Serpent's Egg 1988 12 "The Song of the Sybil" [sic] 3:45 Aion 1990 13 "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book" 6:03 Aion 1990 14 "In the Kingdom of the Blind The One-Eyed are Kings" 4:09 The Serpent's Egg 1988 15 "Bird" 5:00 (new track) 1991 16 "Spirit" 4:59 (new track) 1991
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