"It was the title of this particular book which attracted me. It's intrinsically musical, a natural starting point. I have avoided trying to tell its story in step-by-step fashion though. 'The Songs of Distant Earth' follows the text loosely, is based around it, but is actually a thematic piece inspired by Clarke's work in general..."

"It took me a lot longer than I thought, because I was unable to use whatever techniques and tricks I might usually fall back on. For instance, I couldn't use 12-string or acoustic guitars, because they sounded just too Earth-bound in context. I had to come up with a whole new vocabulary of studio-manufactured sounds..."

"I had to put my old ways of making music behind me - all the folksy, Celtic stuff I'm known for. This is me reaching new heights. I wanted to make a record that would appeal across the generations, right through to the kids in the clubs..."

"It seems to take a while for everyone else to catch up. People come up to me sometimes and mention the Celtic revival or the ambient thing or world music and then say, 'Yeah, weren't you doing that 15 years ago?' 'No, mate,' I have to reply. 'It was about 20, actually'..."

Mike Oldfield Tubular.net