The album was released as a CD and, shortly afterwards, 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. It was also released as a vinyl LP, which has become a rare item.
In terms of Mike Oldfield'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 to 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, 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, Oldfield'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.
Oldfield'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 Oldfield also wrote some original music.
Clarke and Oldfield
The booklet of the album features 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."
— Arthur C. Clarke
This was not the first time that Oldfield's music had been connected with the books of Arthur C. Clarke.
Prior to The Songs of Distant Earth, Oldfield 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 (1968). Another track from Tubular Bells II was called "Sunjammer". The Arthur C. Clarke short story, 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]
The Gregorian Chant on "Hibernaculum" is not Latin, but the chant on "Let There Be Light" is.
The Saamiyoik chant on "Prayer For The Earth" was composed and performed by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. The chant is from the 1987 movie Ofelaš (Pathfinder).
