Dead Can Dance released their third studio album, “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun,” on 27 July 1987 through 4AD. The album turns 39 this year. It followed “Spleen and Ideal” (1985), and by the time of its recording the group had narrowed to the core duo of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, joined by Peter Ulrich on timpani and military snare after members Scott Rodger and James Pinker left the band.

The group recorded the album between April and May 1987 at Woodbine studio in Warwickshire, England, produced by Perry, Gerrard and John A. Rivers, with Rivers and Francisco Cabeza engineering. The eight-track album is sequenced across two sides: “Anywhere Out of the World,” “Windfall,” “In the Wake of Adversity” and “Xavier” open the record, followed by “Dawn of the Iconoclast,” “Cantara,” “Summoning of the Muse” and “Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers).” A small ensemble of cello, oboe, trombone, tuba, trumpet, viola and violin players augments the core arrangements, with Gerrard’s vocals featured prominently across the second side. On the album’s expanded instrumentation, the group stated: “We realised we had been limiting our musical visions [before], relying around guitar, bass and drums. These instruments weren’t adequate to express a lot of the things we were hearing.”

The cover photograph, taken by Bernard Oudin, shows the grave of French politician and journalist François-Vincent Raspail at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris. “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun” streams on Spotify.

About Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981, founded by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. The duo relocated to London in 1982 and signed to 4AD in 1983, releasing the self-titled debut album “Dead Can Dance” on 27 February 1984. “Spleen and Ideal” followed on 25 November 1985. By the time the group recorded “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun,” members Scott Rodger and James Pinker had left, leaving Gerrard and Perry as the core duo, joined on the album by Peter Ulrich on percussion.

4AD released “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun” on 27 July 1987. It was followed by “The Serpent’s Egg” (1988), “Aion” (1990), “Into the Labyrinth” (1993) and “Spiritchaser” (1996), each record mixing gothic rock, world music and neoclassical elements as Gerrard and Perry’s arrangements grew increasingly orchestral. The band disbanded in 1998 and reunited for the album “Anastasis” in 2012, followed by Dionysus in 2018.

Peter Ulrich, who played timpani and military snare on “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun,” has continued to release solo material, including a vinyl reissue of his debut solo album. The anniversary of “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun” places the album back in Dead Can Dance’s timeline as the record that marked the group’s transition to its long-running core duo lineup.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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