Mike Oldfield
    The Songs Of Distant Earth

    Best known for his mega-selling Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield's The Songs of Distant Earth is inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke book of the same name.

    Play Mysty for me?
    Inspiration for Mike Oldfield
    Oldfield was given a copy of Myst and this seems to have inspired him to enter the world of Enhanced CDs. The disc consists of seventeen music tracks lasting over 55 minutes and track one data designed for Mac CD-ROM drives. The extra data consists of a short animated program (around three minutes in length) which uses the first two songs, In the Beginning and Let There Be Light.

    The animation appears to have been made with Autodesk's 3-D Studio or some similar package and looks great. You are sucked inside a giant space craft and transported to a futuristic city. A strange creature metamorphoses into a chair. There's very little in the way of interaction - you simply sit back and enjoy the show. The visuals really do add to the music and there are apparently plans to develop a longer version.

    Verdict:
    Not much in terms of interactivity, but this isn't always a bad thing. A nice little bonus for Oldfield fans.


  • Sarah McLachlan
    The Freedom Sessions
  • The Cranberries
    Doors and Windows
  • EBN
    Telecommunication
  • Various
    Don't Play Track One
  • The Duratti Column
    Sex and Death
  • Nyack
    11 Track Player
  • The editors choice
  • The technology