The Songs of Distant Earth
Album by Mike Oldfield
Released	February 1994
Recorded	?? ?? - ??
Genre	Ambient
Length	55:51
Label	Warner Brothers
Producer(s)	Mike Oldfield
Professional reviews
All Music Guide (2/5) link
Mike Oldfield chronology
Tubular Bells II (1992)	The Songs of Distant Earth (1994)	Voyager (1996)

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. Image File history File links This image is the cover of an album or single. ... An album is a collection of related audio tracks, released together commercially in an audio format to the public. ... Mike Oldfield on the album cover of Amarok (1990) Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends rock or progressive rock, New Age Music, ethnic or world music, and classical music. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated like the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... Ambient music is a loosely defined musical genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including jazz, electronic music, new age, rock and roll, modern classical music, reggae, traditional, world and even noise. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Warner Brothers Records is a record label which was launched on March 19, 1958 by Warner Bros. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Mike Oldfield on the album cover of Amarok (1990) Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends rock or progressive rock, New Age Music, ethnic or world music, and classical music. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Mike Oldfield on the album cover of Amarok (1990) Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends rock or progressive rock, New Age Music, ethnic or world music, and classical music. ... Tubular Bells II is a music album by Mike Oldfield. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated like the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ... Voyager is a record album, written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... An album is a collection of related audio tracks, released together commercially in an audio format to the public. ... Mike Oldfield on the album cover of Amarok (1990) Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends rock or progressive rock, New Age Music, ethnic or world music, and classical music. ... Sir Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is a British author and inventor, most famous for his science-fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name. ... Songs of Distant Earth is the common title of several science fiction works by Arthur C. Clarke. ...

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. Enhanced CD is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both compact disc and CD-ROM players. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Enigma is a musical project started by Michael Cretu and his wife Sandra Cretu in 1990. ... Deep Forest is a musical group comprising of two French musicians, Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez. ...

Track listing

1. "In the Beginning" – 1:24
2. "Let There be Light" – 4:57
3. "Supernova" – 3:23
4. "Magellan" – 4:40
5. "First Landing" – 1:16
6. "Oceania" – 3:19
7. "Only Time Will Tell" – 4:26
8. "Prayer for the Earth" – 2:09
9. "Lament for Atlantis" – 2:43
10. "The Chamber" – 1:48
11. "Hibernaculum" – 3:32
12. "Tubular World" – 3:22
13. "The Shining Ones" – 2:59
14. "Crystal Clear" – 5:42
15. "The Sunken Forest" – 2:37
16. "Ascension" – 5:49
17. "New Beginning" – 1:37

Trivia

• 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 chant on "Prayer For The Earth" was composed and performed by Nils Aslak Valkeapää. The chant is from the movie Ofelas ("Pathfinder").

Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program, in which Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to leave Earth orbit and to orbit around the Moon. ... William A. Anders (b. ... Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... Bulk composition of the moons mantle and crust estimated, weight percent Oxygen 42. ... Christmas is a Christian holiday held on December 25 which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Gregorian chant is also known as plainchant or plainsong and is a form of monophonic, unaccompanied singing, which was developed in the Catholic Church, mainly during the period 800-1000. ... Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, often called Áilluhas (March 23 1943 - November 27 2001) was a saami writer, musician and artist of Finnish citizenship born in Enontekiö in the Finnish part of Lapland. ...

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: Sir Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is a British author and inventor, most famous for his science-fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name. ... Songs of Distant Earth is the common title of several science fiction works by Arthur C. Clarke. ...

"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."