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 Brothers | |
| 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 a album, written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. It is based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel Songs of Distant Earth.
It was the first album released as an Enhanced CD. Two different versions of the Enhanced CD content exist, however. The second pressing, released in 1995 with a different cover (shown on the right), contains more of the multimedia content including the full version of the "Let There be Light" video. The audio content is unchanged.
The Songs of Distant Earth was the first of Oldfield's foray into science fiction-related music, and 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.
[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 one of releases 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."
