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Artist.....: Mike Oldfield
Album......: The Songs Of Distant Earth
Type.......: Album
Genre......: New Age
Style......: New Age
Label......: WEA International Inc
CatalogNr..: 4509 98581-2
Url........: http://www.wmg.com
Rel.date...: 14.12.2006
Str.date...: 04.02.1994
Source.....: CDDA
Grabber....: EAC 0.95 beta 4
Encoder....: Lame 3.96.1 --APS
Quality....: VBRkbps / 44,1kHz / Joint-Stereo
Tracks.....: 1
Size.......: 78,41 MB
Length.....: 56:48
______________________________________________________________________________
Tracklist
01. In The Beginning 01:24
02. Let There Be Light 05:56
03. Supernova 03:25
04. Magellan 05:41
05. First Landing 01:16
06. Oceania 03:20
07. Only Time Will Tell 04:26
08. Prayer For The Earth 02:10
09. Lament For Atlantis 03:44
10. The Chamber 02:50
11. Hibernaculum 04:31
12. Tubular World 03:25
13. The Shining Ones 03:56
14. Crystal Clear 06:42
15. The Sunken Forest 03:38
16. Ascension 06:50
17. A New Beginning 02:33
Total Time: 56:48
______________________________________________________________________________
Release Notes
Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a
multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends
progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic
music and more recently dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in
nature.
The Songs of Distant Earth is a music 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, 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.
Since I've been a Mike Oldfield fan for years, every album from him is a
highlight in my life. And in the past 5 years (apart from the awful Heavens
Open from 91) he has released only great albums. Many people say that
Oldfield made the spark that started New Age music with Tubular Bells. And a
lot of ambient/house muscicians (Orb for instance) has spoken highly of
Oldfield when asked where their musical inspiration comes from. Oldfield has
through the years mixed rock, classical, jazz, folk music and ethnic music
just as he pleased. Combined with a great talent and maximum use of studio
technology he has by many been considered to be a genius. He just simply
explains that he wants to show the world that you can make music out of
anything.
Oldfield has always had a foot inside of the rock genre, though a lot of his
albums are filled with atmospheric sounds and really beautiful moments with
soaring feelings. But on his latest album he goes in a direction wich he has
only hinted at before (for instance Island and Tubular Bells II). On this
album he uses a lot of synth and sampled sounds, combined with his beautiful
guitarwork. It seems like he has been listening a lot to chart toppers like
Enigma, Deep Forest and such. But he only takes back the influences wich they
have taken from him through the years. (Oldfield and Cretu has worked
together in the past.) This, combined with his blending talent, creates a 50
minute long journey through a book by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Songs of Distant
Earth." Clarke has written on the cover about the book, and there will also
be a CD-ROM release of the album shortly. Here is a rewiev of the album,
track by track although I think Oldfield wants the whole thing to be regarded
as one composition.
____________________________________________________ Psychedelic Cyber Zone __
est. 2001