The Songs of Distant Earth is the sixteenth studio album by English musician, songwriter and producer Mike Oldfield, released on 21 November 1994 by WEA. It is a concept album based on the 1986 science fiction novel The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. The album reached No. 24 on the UK Albums Chart.

Background

In 1993, Oldfield completed his 1992–1993 tour to promote his previous album, Tubular Bells II (1992), his first concert tour since 1984. The album was his first of the initial three that he was contracted to produce for Warner Music UK, following his signing to the label in 1992. When Oldfield was ready to record a follow-up, label chairman Rob Dickins suggested that he make a concept album based on the 1986 science fiction novel The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. Oldfield deemed the story not one of Clarke's best, "but it had lots of atmosphere" and started to think of musical ideas on travelling through space and landing on another world and the events that take place on it. The title of the book particularly attracted Oldfield, calling it "intrinsically musical, a natural starting point". Oldfield visited Clarke in Sri Lanka to discuss the possibility and found out he was a fan of his soundtrack to the 1984 film The Killing Fields and felt "delighted" about the album. Clarke was given a copy of Tubular Bells II for listening; he was impressed enough and agreed to collaborate.

Writing and recording

Oldfield chose to have the album follow the novel's plot "loosely".

He made extensive use of samples, including from the sample CD Datafile One (1991) by Zero-G, Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" (1971), film soundtracks, and world music recorded in Polynesia and Lapland.

CD-ROM content

Oldfield faced difficulty in writing music to the story at first and needed some "in between space" to help visualise it. This was alleviated when he received a copy of the 1993 graphic adventure puzzle game Myst for the PC and was impressed with the graphics, which greatly influenced his decision to have 3D computer-generated video accompany the music for the album on the Enhanced CD format, combining features of a standard CD with CD-ROM content. The result was graphics that Oldfield had in his mind while writing the music. Oldfield felt contemporary music at the time of recording lacked any real excitement, but felt the reverse as he worked on the interactive technology. This, and his interest in Myst, sparked his wish to make his own game that helped the player on their own spiritual development.

The album was released as a CD and, shortly afterwards, as an Enhanced CD of which two versions were made. Both versions' initial pressings contained an image of a manta ray flying in front of a planet on the front cover; later pressings change the image to one of a suited man holding a glowing orb with manta rays flying overhead. The second pressing of the enhanced CD contains slightly more multimedia content, including the full version of the "Let There Be Light" video. The CD audio content is the same on all versions of the album. It was also released as a vinyl LP, which has become a rare item.

The enhanced CD content, for Apple Macintosh PowerPC computers only, was rendered on Silicon Graphics computers and used Apple's QuickTime II technology. The re-release back cover lists the "CD ROM Track" as track 000 (where all tracks have a three-digit number), and a length of 0:00. Produced in 1994 it was an early example of Enhanced CD content.

Oldfield used Emagic Logic Audio for sequencing and Pro Tools hardware for the recording of the album using a combination of tape and hard drive recording.

Track listing

  1. "In the Beginning" – 1:24
  2. "Let There Be Light" – 4:52
  3. "Supernova" – 3:29
  4. "Magellan" – 4:41
  5. "First Landing" – 1:16
  6. "Oceania" – 3:27
  7. "Only Time Will Tell" – 4:19
  8. "Prayer for the Earth" – 2:10
  9. "Lament for Atlantis" – 2:44
  10. "The Chamber" – 1:49
  11. "Hibernaculum" – 3:32
  12. "Tubular World" – 3:23
  13. "The Shining Ones" – 2:59
  14. "Crystal Clear" – 5:42
  15. "The Sunken Forest" – 2:39
  16. "Ascension" – 5:48
  17. "A New Beginning" – 1:33

Personnel

Music

  • Mike Oldfield – various instruments
  • Molly Oldfield – keyboards
  • Eric Caudieux – additional programming
  • Mark Rutherford – additional rhythm loops
  • Sugar "J" – additional rhythm loops
  • Pandit Dinesh – tablas
  • Cori Josias – vocals
  • Ella Harper – vocals
  • David Nickless – vocals
  • Roame – vocals
  • Nils-Aslak Valkeapää – Sámi chant for a joik on "Prayer for the Earth"
  • Members of Verulam Consort – vocals
  • Tallis Scholars – vocals

Excerpts:

  • Bill Anders – reading from the Book of Genesis while orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968 on "In the Beginning"

References

Sources

  • Mike Oldfield Discography – The Songs of Distant Earth at Tubular.net
  • Entry at discogs.com