Album Club: 15.11.11: Mike Oldfield - The Songs Of Distant Earth (1994)

[Reid Malenfant]

Mike Oldfield - The Songs Of Distant Earth (1994)



Hope fully this should be fun

This is some hopefully rather nice ambient electronica that was inspired by a book written by Authur C. Clarke From what I can gather Mike Oldfield read the book of the same name & got in touch with Authur C. Clarke & asked him if he'd mind him writing an album to fit in with the book. Obviously the reply was in the affirmative & as far as I know a copy of the album was sent to Sri Lanka for Mr Clarke to have a listen to before it was released, he gave it his full backing

Thank goodness for that, as imo this is a truly superb bit of music & again imo I think this is some of Mike Oldfields best work.

I read the book before I ever had a chance to listen to the album. Obviously some of you may have had this pleasure as it's a superb book & no doubt why Oldfield felt compelled to write some music for it. What I can say is that having read the book, the music fits it perfectly! The music begins (oddly ) at the beginning of the book & marches through to the inevitable conclusion.

There is only the one song on the whole album that doesn't fit for me in all honesty, this happens to be track 17 or the very last track so it's no biggy imo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Songs_of_Distant_Earth



http://open.spotify.com/album/7AbAn57Y429agHSHIJXu8h

I hope you all enjoy the music, though I'd be shocked if you all did obviously

I thought I'd better let you all in gently to some of the stuff I listen to rather than jumping in at the deep end You'd have had some deep end last week if Alex hadn't won the toss!

Owners of small bass reflex stand mount speakers keep an eye on your bass drivers if listening at a highish level as there is some high level deep bass on this album - you have been warned

[Tim]

Ooo, this looks interesting Mark - never heard of this one at all and I'm really looking forward to giving it a listen... high five

[keiths]

Great choice Mark - one of my favourite Oldfield albums. You really aren't kidding about the bass either

Looking forward to revisiting this one before I cast my vote.

[Reid Malenfant]

Ooo, this looks interesting Mark - never heard of this one at all and I'm really looking forward to giving it a listen... high five

I hope you enjoy it Tim

Great choice Mark - one of my favourite Oldfield albums. You really aren't kidding about the bass either

Looking forward to revisiting this one before I cast my vote.

No I wasn't kidding about the bass & I'm glad you realise that

Nothing saying I can't vote on my own choice of album is there?

It gets an 8/10 from me as 1. I already own it & 2. I do have better stuff

[Alex_UK]

Ah, normality resumed!

I have this on CD, so an easy week for me tracking it down. I'll give it a fresh listen in the spirit of Album Club before commenting. Nice one Mark.

[John]

Generally the issue I often have with Ambiant music is that often I do not hear enough melodic invention to keep me interested, its not like I need complex melodic structures but that help but just hearing a few notes with little else going on is not my thing.
Thankfully Mark Choice does not fall in that, the music is relaxing but has enough melody to take me on a journey Good choice and something I play again
A 7 for me

[Bazil]

I hope you all enjoy the music, though I'd be shocked if you all did obviously

Only time will tell

[Thing Fish]

Never heard of this album before so am looking forward to hearing it.

[Reid Malenfant]

Only time will tell

Nice one

[Tim]

Well this is not what I was expecting at all Mark! Not sure what to make of it yet, but I want to play it again and would probably give it a 5 or 6 now, but I think it needs a few more spins before I fully decide. I really don't like the bagpipes however, they don't work for me.

But compared to (sorry Alex) last week, it's a very welcome relief