Mike Oldfield: The Killing Fields (Original Film Soundtrack)
Mike Oldfield
The Killing Fields (Original Film Soundtrack)
(Mercury)
Sweet strings slither on high in âPanâs Theme,â the opening track to Mike Oldfieldâs soundtrack of 1984âs The Killing Fields (Original Film Soundtrack). The chorus vocals and again strings begin, then settle around drums and horns in the next cut, âRequiem For a City,â with the orchestra truly rising by the third track to overplay a main melody on âThe Trek.â The bouncy, space-age, synth, metallic of âEvacuationâ present rather simple synth arpeggios with descending single notes. âBad Newsâ has lilting, intertwining, synth strings and synth chorused voices (this is very Oldfield-sounding for sure), ending in synth blurping. âWorksiteâ has some scary, slicing metallic percussion sounds and thereâs even more of that percussion work (along with animal sounds) on the sly beat of âBlood Sucking.â âThe Trekâ is back to big orchestration, dramatic stuff, very embolden with its low strings and horn accenting, then a sweep of a counter line horn part rising in with big hits of the main melody. Two new bonus tracks end this new collection, the shorter single edit of âEvacuationâ and the clinky, percussion, pan flute-sounding, most commercially-accessible tune here, âĂtude (Single Edit).â Itâs evident that these 19 songs are not built around Oldfieldâs singular distinctive guitar orchestrating, nor anywhere close to his most famous mainstream movie music contribution, âTubular Bellsâ (or any of the installments of that suite). This is a more studied and somber Oldfield writing specifically for a film (the first time he will ever do so, actually), mining the high strings of orchestra sounds and letting simple melodies sweep in and out.