''The Killing Fields'' is the 10th

record album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records col ...

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

, released on 26 November 1984 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

in the UK. It was the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

album for the British drama film of the same name based on the experiences of two journalists in the Khmer Rouge regime in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

. It is the only full-length film score written by Oldfield. The music was orchestrated by

David Bedford David Vickerman Bedford (4 August 1937 – 1 October 2011) was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter ...

. ''The Killing Fields'' was re-released in a remastered edition format on 29 January 2016, as per all previous albums which were originally released on the Virgin label.

History

Though Oldfield's music had been used in films before (see ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty ...

'' and '' The Space Movie''), this was the first time he had written specifically for film, and so far the only time. Oldfield composed the album on a

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

. Like many soundtracks, the album is not a comprehensive record of all the Oldfield music used in the film. Most notably, the music accompanying the darkroom sequence does not feature on the album. The single from the album, "

Étude An étude (; ) or study is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidl ...

", is taken from the Francisco Tarrega piece "

Recuerdos de la Alhambra ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra'' (Memories of the Alhambra) is a classical guitar piece composed in Málaga by Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega.Library of Guitar Classics, AMSCO Publications, 1998 It requires the tremolo technique an ...

". Oldfield's work on the score was partially instigated by Virgin boss Richard Branson when he took Oldfield to see

David Puttnam David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which wo ...

, a producer on the film, which then secured him the role. Oldfield spent six months working on the score for ''The Killing Fields'' before going on

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

, but when Oldfield returned, the producers of the film asked for more music to be written, prompting Oldfield to ask for the use of an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

and a

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

; three months later the score was finished. It was released just a few months after Oldfield's previous album, ''

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''. In Canada, the album reached #90 in the Top Album charts.

Track listing

All tracks written by Mike Oldfield, except where stated.

Side one

# "Pran's Theme" – 0:44 # "Requiem for a City" – 2:11 # "Evacuation" – 5:14 # "Pran's Theme 2" – 1:41 # "Capture" – 2:24 # "Execution" – 4:47 # "Bad News" – 1:14 # "Pran's Departure" – 2:08

Side two

# "Worksite" – 1:16 # "The Year Zero" – 0:28 (

) # "Blood Sucking" – 1:19 # "The Year Zero 2" – 0:37 # "Pran's Escape" / "The Killing Fields" – 3:17 # "The Trek" – 2:02 # "The Boy's Burial" / "Pran Sees the Red Cross" – 2:24 # "Good News" – 1:46 # "

" – 4:37 (

Francisco Tárrega Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often calle ...

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

by Mike Oldfield)

2016 remaster

# "Pran's Theme" # "Requiem for a City" # "Evacuation" # "Pran's Theme 2" # "Capture" # "Execution" # "Bad News" # "Pran's Departure" # "Worksite" # "The Year Zero" # "Blood Sucking" # "The Year Zero 2" # "Pran's Escape" / "The Killing Fields" # "The Trek" # "The Boy's Burial" / "Pran Sees the Red Cross" # "Good News" # "Étude" # "Evacuation ( Single edit)" (Bonus track) # "Étude (Single edit)" (Bonus track)

Personnel

* Mike Oldfield –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s (

Gibson Les Paul Junior The Gibson Les Paul Junior is a solid-body electric guitar introduced in 1954 as an affordable, entry-level Les Paul. It was first released with a single-cutaway body style; models with a double-cutaway body style were later introduced in 1958. Th ...

and SG Junior), synthesizers (including Sequential Circuits Prophet 5,

Oberheim OB-Xa The Oberheim OB-Xa was the second of Oberheim's OB-series polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizers, replacing the OB-X with updated features. History The OB-Xa was released in December 1980, replacing the OB-X after only a year on the mark ...

, DMX, and Roland VP-330),

, producer, engineer *

Preston Heyman Preston Heyman is a British record producer, drummer and percussionist. He is credited on the Kate Bush album ''Never for Ever''. He played Oriental percussion instruments on the track "Blood Sucking" of Mike Oldfield's soundtrack for the fil ...

– oriental percussion *

Morris Pert Morris David Brough Pert (8 September 1947 – 27 April 2010) was a Scottish composer, drummer/percussionist, and pianist who composed in the fields of both contemporary classical and jazz-rock music. His compositions include three symphonies, p ...

– percussion * Eberhard Schoener – conductor *

Bavarian State Orchestra The Bavarian State Orchestra (german: Bayerisches Staatsorchester, italic=no) is the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany. It has given its own series of concerts, the , since 1811. Profile On 9 December 2011, this ensemble c ...

* Tölzer Boys Choir

Certifications

References

External links

Mike Oldfield Discography - ''The Killing Fields''
at Tubular.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Killing Fields, The Works about the Cambodian genocide Mike Oldfield albums Killing Fields 1984 soundtrack albums Virgin Records soundtracks Biographical film soundtracks Drama film soundtracks