The Songs of Distant Earth is the 16th album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1994 by Warner Music. It is based on Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction novel The Songs of Distant Earth. The Songs of Distant Earth is the 16th album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1994 by Warner Music. It is based on Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction novel The Songs of Distant Earth. false 2023-01-16 09:17:06 The Songs of Distant Earth 8.4 1995 1995-01-01 1995-01-01 56 Ambient Downtempo Electro Electronic Experimental New Age Progressive Rock Rock 111726 2114271 397dce0c-4cb6-3a14-bf04-06cc4776d1a1 a1684a49-feaa-4150-b758-d9412fc59f12 1d8ca430-e6ab-3d87-a692-46ca92d19242 /media/data/media5/Music/Mike Oldfield/The Songs of Distant Earth (1994)/folder.jpg Mike Oldfield AlbumArtist Mike Oldfield Artist Mike Oldfield Mike Oldfield 1 In the Beginning 01:24 2 Let There Be Light 04:57 3 Supernova 03:23 4 Magellan 04:40 5 First Landing 01:16 6 Oceania 03:19 7 Only Time Will Tell 04:26 8 Prayer for the Earth 02:09 9 Lament for Atlantis 02:43 10 The Chamber 01:48 11 Hibernaculum 03:32 12 Tubular World 03:22 13 The Shining Ones 02:59 14 Crystal Clear 05:42 15 The Sunken Forest 02:37 16 Ascension 05:49 17 A New Beginning 01:37 Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English former musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield played a range of instruments, which includes keyboards and percussion, as well as vocals. He had adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music. Oldfield took up the guitar at age ten and left school in his teens to embark on a music career. From 1967 to 1970, he and his sister Sally Oldfield were a folk duo the Sallyangie, after which he performed with Kevin Ayers. In 1971, Oldfield started work on Tubular Bells which caught the attention of Richard Branson, who agreed to release it on his new label, Virgin Records. Its opening was used in the horror film The Exorcist and the album went on to sell over 2.7 million copies in the UK. Oldfield followed it with Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975), and Incantations (1978), all of which feature longform and mostly instrumental pieces. In the late 1970s, Oldfield began to tour and release more commercial and song-based music, beginning with Platinum (1979), QE2 (1980), and Five Miles Out (1982). His most successful album of this period was Crises (1983), which features the worldwide hit single "Moonlight Shadow" with vocalist Maggie Reilly. After signing with WEA in the early 1990s, Oldfield's most significant album of the decade was Tubular Bells II (1992) and he experimented with virtual reality and gaming content with his MusicVR project. In 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. Oldfield's discography includes 26 studio albums, nine of which have reached the UK top-ten. His final album, Return to Ommadawn was released in 2017. Oldfield's label announced his retirement in 2023.