1981-1998

Dead Can Dance (1981–1998) (2001) is a four-disc box set, containing three CDs of music spanning Dead Can Dance's career and a DVD of their 1994 video release Toward the Within. While most of the tracks are taken from previously released albums, this set also contains a large number of rarities. "Frontier" (Demo) and "The Protagonist" were originally released on the 1987 4AD compilation Lonely Is an Eyesore. "Labour of Love", "Ocean", "Orion", and "Threshold" were recorded for the John Peel Show in 1983. In 1984, a follow-up Peel Session produced the version of "Carnival of Light" contained in this set. "Sloth" (Radio) was recorded for radio and a studio version was later released on Brendan Perry's solo album Eye of the Hunter. "Bylar", a Lisa Gerrard and Robert Perry (Brendan's brother) composition, was taken from a live performance recorded on 10 July 1996 at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania for the Echoes public radio show. It was originally released in 1996 on The Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 2. “Gloridean” was previously only available on the Towards The Within video but didn’t appear on the CD version.