The Songs of Distant Earth (album): Difference between revisions

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Oldfield chose to have the album follow the novel's plot "loosely".<ref name=WEAPR2/> It recounts the destruction of Earth in the year 3600 after the Sun goes [[nova]], for which the planet has 1,600 years to prepare, sending spaceships to nearby planetary systems.<ref name=IACT95/> The album took longer for Oldfield to complete than he had initially planned, in part because he considered some of his usual instruments - including acoustic guitars - too "Earth-bound" for the setting, opting instead to create a "new vocabulary" of sounds in the studio.<ref name=WEAPR2/> This leadled Oldfield to broaden his repertoire and appeal, and resulted in an album which he classed as "very [[Ambient music|ambient]]".<ref name=SOS95>{{cite web|url=https://tubular.net/articles/1995_02/Tubular-Worlds|title=Tubular Worlds|date=February 1995|work=Sound on Sound|first=Paul|last=White|access-date=3 February 2020}}</ref>

He made extensive use of samples, including from the sample CD ''Datafile One'' (1991) by Zero-G, [[Led Zeppelin]]'s "[[When the Levee Breaks#Led Zeppelin version#Sampling|When the Levee Breaks]]" (1971), film soundtracks, and [[world music]] recorded in [[Polynesia]] and [[Sápmi|Lapland]].<ref name=SOS95/> While the album was being mixed and cut, Oldfield was concerned that being ana solely digital recording, it would sound too "angular". As a test, a copy was made onto recording tape using [[Dolby SR]], a type of [[noise reduction]], which he thought produced some nice results but greater loss of clarity.<ref name=SOS95/> The liner notes contains a foreword by Clarke about the development of his book, from short story to novel. He ends it with a note 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-ROM 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."<ref name="LP-text">{{cite AV media |title=The Songs of Distant Earth (Mike Oldfield vinyl LP cover) |author=Arthur C. Clarke |date=1994 |publisher=Warner Music UK Ltd |id=4509-98581-1}}</ref>

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.<ref name=BB94>{{cite webmagazine|url=https://tubular.net/articles/1994_11/Oldfield-Pioneers-Music/Cyberspace-Border|title=Oldfield Pioneers Music/Cyberspace Border|workmagazine=Billboard|date=5 November 1994|first=Marilyn A.|last=Gillen|access-date=3 February 2020}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=IACT95/> While composing for the CD-ROM Oldfield had trouble adapting a theme by [[Jean Sibelius]] for it, which turned into a rage where be "banged out a theme. Like a sort of miracle, it worked!"<ref name=IACT95/>

The CD-ROM allows users to travel through a futuristic city onboardon board a spaceship and towards a central control system, inside of which houses a musical tower. The user must answer a musical puzzle which provides a series of options that trigger a different song on the album.<ref name=IACT95/>

*[[Eric CadieuxCaudieux]] – additional programming

*Members of [[Verulam School|Verulam Consort]] – vocals

*"Vahine Taihara" by [[Tubuai]] Choir

*Mike Joseph – [[self hypnosis]] tape on "Crystal Clear"

*[[Simon Fowler (photographer)|Simon Fowler]] – portrait photography