The Songs of Distant Earth (album)
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| The Songs of Distant Earth | ||
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| Studio album by Mike Oldfield | ||
| Released | February 1994 | |
| Recorded | ?? ?? - ?? | |
| Genre | Ambient | |
| Length | 55:51 | |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records | |
| Producer(s) | Mike Oldfield | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Mike Oldfield chronology | ||
| Tubular Bells II (1992) |
The Songs of Distant Earth (1994) |
Voyager (1996) |
The Songs of Distant Earth is an album, written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. It is based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel Songs of Distant Earth.
It was first released in 1994 as a CD, and shortly afterward as an Enhanced CD of which two versions were made. The non-enhanced, CD album featured the image of the Manta flying in front of a planet on the front cover. This was also used on the initial release of the Enhanced CD version. However, it was later changed to the more common image of the Man in a suit holding a glowing orb with the Manta flying overhead. This second pressing of the enhanced CD (shown at right) contains slightly more multimedia content, such as the full version of the "Let There be Light" video. The audio content is the same on all versions of the album.
In terms of Mike's career, The Songs of Distant Earth represented a foray into science fiction-related music. Songs such as "Supernova" and "Hibernaculum" could be seen as similar or even influenced by Enigma, while "New Beginning" has ethnic world chants in the style of Deep Forest. There are also Native American influences on the album. However to be fair, Mike Oldfield had been using a variety of ethnic musical styles since the 1970s, long before the emergence of Enigma or Deep Forest in the early 1990s. Such works as Ommadawn (1976) and Incantations (1978) featured extensive use of chanting and drumming in combination with uplifting instrumental solos. And more broadly, Mike's early work in the genre of atmospheric instrumental music tinged mixed with world and folk styles, is widely held as a forebear for the success of many other such instrumental artists.
Mike's interest in space and its connection to his music can also be cited elsewhere in his career, such as in the 1980 film entitled "The Space Movie" which featured a soundtrack wholly made up of music from Tubular Bells (1973), Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn and Incantations, and for which Mike also wrote some original music.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "In the Beginning" – 1:24
- "Let There Be Light" – 4:57
- "Supernova" – 3:23
- "Magellan" – 4:40
- "First Landing" – 1:16
- "Oceania" – 3:19
- "Only Time Will Tell" – 4:26
- "Prayer for the Earth" – 2:09
- "Lament for Atlantis" – 2:43
- "The Chamber" – 1:48
- "Hibernaculum" – 3:32
- "Tubular World" – 3:22
- "The Shining Ones" – 2:59
- "Crystal Clear" – 5:42
- "The Sunken Forest" – 2:37
- "Ascension" – 5:49
- "A New Beginning" – 1:37
[edit] Miscellanea
- The spoken section at the beginning of the album is Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders reading from the Book of Genesis while orbiting the Moon on Christmas Day, 1968.
- The Gregorian Chant on "Hibernaculum" is not Latin, but the chant on "Let There be Light" is.
- The Saami yoik chant on "Prayer For The Earth" was composed and performed by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. The chant is from the 1987 movie Ofelaš (The Pathfinder).
[edit] Clarke and Oldfield
In the booklet of the album, there is a foreword by Arthur C. Clarke about the evolution of Songs of Distant Earth from short story to novel. It ends with the following about the album:
- "Since the finale of the novel is a musical concert, I was delighted when Mike Oldfield told me that he wished to compose a suite inspired by it. I was particularly impressed by the music he wrote for The Killing Fields and now, having played the CD of The Songs of Distant Earth, I feel he has lived up to my expectations.
- Welcome back into space, Mike: there's still lots of room out here."
This was not the first time that Mike's music had been connected with the books of Arthur C Clarke.
Prior to The Songs Of Distant Earth, Mike had released Tubular Bells II, which featured a track called "Sentinel" - which also happened to be the title of a short story written by Arthur C Clarke that later evolved into his most famous work, "2001: A Space Odyssey". Another track from Tubular Bells II was called Sunjammer. The Arthur C Clarke novel, The Wind From The Sun, had the working title of "Sunjammer".
Meanwhile, other track titles from Tubular Bells II may be less direct references to space and science fiction - 'Weightless' and 'Dark Star', for example. Dark Star was the name of a science fiction film by director John Carpenter, released in 1973, the same year as the original Tubular Bells.[1]
