The Burning Circle and Then Dust is Lycia’s fourth studio recording, originally released on double CD via Projekt Records in 1995. Save for a very small CD re-release in 2006 by Silber Records, the album has never been reissued since – and never before on Vinyl!
Mike VanPortfleet himself commented: “After several years of doing more synth oriented material I wanted a return to my guitar roots (in particular English post punk and 4AD). Lycia started as a guitar based band and I wanted to reaffirm that with disc one, which was originally going to be the release. I was also listening to a lot of shoegaze then, which inspired a return of making the guitars, as opposed to the synths, the focal point of the atmospherics.”.
Many things have been said about the album along the last twentyeight years, and the band chose the following to describe the record.
From Projekt.com. – The Burning Circle And Then Dust was a groundbreaking point in Lycia’s career. It marked a shift from more atmospheric music towards song-oriented music with tracks like “Pray” & “Slip Away.” It marked the first collaborations between Mike VanPortfleet & Lycia members David Galas & Tara Vanflower. It marked the transformation of Lycia into a honed
out live touring machine.
From Pandamonium Magazine via Projekt.com. – Moving back into more formal song structures, Burning Circle returns to true song-writing, and places equal emphasis on guitar as the electronics. However, the music is as intense and powerful as ever, conjuring up vast vistas of soundscapes which are captured in delicate webs of song and structure. Songs like “Pray” are positively dance friendly, while others find Lycia moving towards the fertile ground of darkpop. Breath- taking in scope and beauty, exultant in vision, exhilarating in sensory delight. Lycia have arrived.From Ned Raggett of AllMusic – a high point of American dark rock and the band’s greatest and most ambitious work.

Tracks:
A1 A Presence in the Woods
A2 Wandering Soul
A3 The Dust settles (Part 1)
A4 Sleepless
A5 The Dust settles (Part 2)
A6 The Return of Nothing
B1 The Dust settles (Part 3)
B2 Pray
B3 The better Things to come
B4 On The Horizon
B5 Where has All the Time gone?
C1 Silence and Distance
C2 Anywhere but Home
C3 In the Fire and Flames
C4 Slip away
C5 The last Day
D1 August (Part 1)
D2 Nine Hours later
D3 Nimble D4 August (Part 2)
E1 The Facade fades
E2 Resigned
E3 Surrender
F1 These Memories pass
F2 The Burning Circle
F3 The new Day