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Wanderer Group: Members Posts: 119 Joined: Aug. 2002 Posted: Oct. 05 2002, 06:21 "Tres Lunas" is designed as the soundtrack to a video game. Looking around the internet at fan forums, I've noticed that in all the reviews of "Tres Lunas" - wether they be good or bad reviews - no one has judged it on it's merits as a soundtrack album. I find it strange that no one has commented on how well the music suits the imagery of the game - since THAT IS WHAT A SOUNDTRACK IS DESIGNED TO DO. As far as I'm concerned, that should be a soundtrack's first priority: that it fits the image. Wether it's good standalone music or not is less important. "Misty" & "To Be Free" : To my knowledge these are not heard in the game. They are kinda like the "inspired by" tracks you'll find on some film soundtracks, just a bonus. Some of Sally Oldfield's monologue is included in snippets throughout the game though. "No Man's Land" : These are heard  during the bits where you are flying through space on a surfboard of stars (I don't know how else to describe it). The purely electronic version here creates an appropriately eerie vibe as you soar through huge gas giants. A version with guitar solo and piano is heard during the "flyrose" section and you see the flower burning up upon contact with the atmosphere of the "origin planet". I love the way both the tune and the imagery gradually build up to this moment - don't ask me why, but I always find it beautifully sad. "Return To The Origin" : This is from the "rebirth tunnel" sequence that pops up several times and eventually ends with the player being reborn as the supreme being. It's as bizarre as the psychadelica that accompanies it though the background sampled speech makes little more sense when put in context. "Landfall" : This appears in a different form in the game, when you are being pulled along by the avatar - but it's a decent enough bit of chillout fluff as is. "Turtle Island" : Brilliant. Perfectly suits the Easter Island-esque setting and is a great acoustic number besides IMHO. "Viper" : Crops up several times during the more sinister, foreboding moments in the game and works very well in creating a sense of uneasy anticipation in the player. Especially during the "choice" moment on Turtle Island. "Art In Heaven" : Mainly leftovers from "The Millennium Bell"... but bits of it do pop up every now and again when you move from place to place and Sally Oldfield's speech crops up often. Works reasonably well in the game, but this version is better as standalone music. "Firefly" and "Daydream": Perfectly dreamy music to go with dreamy imagery. "Tres Lunas" and "Sirius" : Guitar solos from these pop up in certain places, normally during the "pulled" sequences. I actually prefer the versions used in the game, they are louder, heavier than these....but in a way the album versions are better because they are longer and don't fade out too soon. Is "Tres Lunas" a good soundtrack album then. Indupitably. Listening to the music in the game I was amazed by how ell it fit with the action and I couldn't imagine it with any other music in place. They are inseperable. Is it a good Mike Oldfield album? It depends what you are looking for I guess. It's undeniably successful when judged as a "chillout" album, and contains a lot less repetition than one would normally expect from such an album. Some tunes, like "Landfall" reminded me of young Jean Michel Jarre. Still, a lot of fans think that Mike can do so much better than simply "background music". They'd be right, this can't hold a candle to most of his work in the nineties...it's probably his least ambitious album since "Heaven's Open". However, I do feel it has been misjudged in some ways. Soundtrack albums simply are not like other records they have to be judged by a different set of standards. Bernard Hermann's soundtrack to "Psycho" is one of the most accomplished pieces of film music in history but I wouldn't blast it through my subwoofers cruising down the freeway. On the other side of the coin, Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for "Legend" is one of the worst - not because the music itself is bad, it actually makes for rather pleasant listening - but because none of it really gelled with the imagery it was designed for. Back to top

raven4x4x Group: Members Posts: 1535 Joined: Jan. 2002 Posted: Jan. 09 2003, 04:34 I suppose the reason no-one thinks of it as a soundtrack album is that it is not marketed or labelled as such. Nowhere on the cover does it say "Soundtrack to MusicVR", and if you just picked it up of the rack without knowing anything about it, you would not immediately know it was a soundtrack to anything. This does not make it a typical film soundtrack, in my opinion. Another thing, some people (including me) have not played the game, and therefore have no knowledge of its merits as a soundtrack. The main point of this album, alongside being soundtrack, is to be an album. It is judged the same as any other album because that it what it is trying to be. I am sure that it would make a good soundtrack to MVR, but it is really designed as a normal, non-soundtrack album. That is why it will be judged as such. -------------- Thank-you for helping us help you help us all. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Jan. 13 2003, 12:43 Mike did do some work on the music, in order to make it work as an album, so it's not so unfair to judge it as an album. Though there's perhaps something to be said for taking into consideration the fact that with Tres Lunas, the end product was not just an album but also virtual environment with music, I'd have to say that raven4x4x has a point when saying that it's presented as an album and should be judged as such. How we look at the music when it's within the game is another matter... Back to top

TheMan Group: Members Posts: 105 Joined: July 2002 Posted: Jan. 22 2003, 04:01 Answer: because in the end it all come down to listening to the music. It is music, written by Mike Oldfield. It may have beem written for a certain purpose, but most MO fans will just listen to it, irrespective to the fact that it is a 'soundtrack', and they will obviously relate the music to other MO albums. Question settled. Back to top

qjamesfloyd Group: Members Posts: 1360 Joined: April 2001 Posted: Jan. 22 2003, 10:11 What i like about soundtrack albums,is that you should be able to listen to them without the Film/Book/Game,and they should still sound good,that is a way to spot a good writer,think of The Killing Fields,Songs Of Distant Earth,they can be listened to on there own,as just an album of music.So can Tres Lunas,the fact that they can be called soundtracks just adds another dimention to them,check out Mark Knopfler's soundtracks to see what i mean. Back to top

TOBY Group: Members Posts: 1562 Joined: May 2002 Posted: Jan. 22 2003, 13:39 Personaly I've never really considered TL as a soundtrack album although I suppose it is in the broad sence of the word. I don't think at all it should be judged under any differeing set of standards no matter how you classify it. Each track was designed to stand up on its own merrits and therefore is open to any fair criticism anyone wishes to throw at it. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Jan. 23 2003, 08:51 I think my definition of a well written soundtrack would be something which brings a new dimension to the images, adding something that wouldn't have been there without it. I found it interesting to hear Wim Wenders say that when Ry Cooder recorded the music for 'Paris, Texas' it was like he'd shot the film again, using a guitar instead of a camera. I'm not sure what I'd think of that particular soundtrack on its own, but the film certainly wouldn't be the same without it. I've never really considered Tres Lunas as a soundtrack album either. I have noticed that the music seems more complete when the images are there as well, though - I found that The Wind Chimes was a bit like that, though it's grown on me as a stand alone piece the more I've listened to it. I believe that Mike does divide his creativity between music and images on projects like Music VR and The Wind Chimes, and what he creates is conceived as a whole rather than as separate pieces which can be taken individually (certainly the Tres Lunas album was more of an afterthought, more as a commercial move than one which Mike had conceived from the beginning). Back to top

QE3 Group: Members Posts: 12 Joined: Aug. 2002 Posted: Jan. 24 2003, 05:09 in fact really good music can be played against any pictures or movie ... ! if mike had chosen to film a tractor digging a hole in the ground as visuals for the album we would have liked it and said 'mike is breaking new ground! it is deep' Back to top

Sweetpea Group: Members Posts: 1476 Joined: April 2007 Posted: Aug. 30 2007, 04:24 Quote (Wanderer @ Oct. 05 2002, 06:21) "Return To The Origin" : This is from the "rebirth tunnel" sequence that pops up several times and eventually ends with the player being reborn as the supreme being. It's as bizarre as the psychadelica that accompanies it though the background sampled speech makes little more sense when put in context. ..... Listening to the music in the game I was amazed by how ell it fit with the action and I couldn't imagine it with any other music in place. This reminds me of how much I enjoyed the game. I often just listen to the album because I love the music but, strangely, I didn't consciously associate "Return to the Origin" with the tunnel sequence. Now, when I juxtapose the images and the sounds, I experience the same trippy thrill I get while playing that sequence in-game. -------------- "I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty Back to top

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