Long Walk Home: Music from The Rabbit Proof Fence | Soundtrack Review

Another Post-Genesis Spectacle
by: peter naldrett

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Peter Gabriel has very much become an artist intent on tackling ambitious projects and crafting them into a CD deep with his own visions and talent for expressionism. Whether you loved or loathed the Millennium Dome project, those who visited it could not help but be amazed by the fantastic, colourful show performed there and it was Gabriel who provided the music for it, brilliantly crafting a soundtrack that involved all kinds of traditional music from across the British Isles.

His latest project is similar in that it is a soundtrack based on traditional world music, but this time the setting for the emotional journey is the Australian outback. Long Walk Home is Gabriel's soundtrack for the forthcoming Phillip Noyce film, The Rabbit Proof Fence, and it features 15 atmospheric, peaceful pieces that blend historical aboriginal instruments with a modern eye for emotion and drama to yield a haunting CD that will be welcomed by those interested in movie soundtracks or world music.

The film itself, which stars Kenneth Brannagh, tells the story of people pulled away from their families in a policy to break up aboriginal homes - but they know they will be able to find their way back if they follow the famous fence that spans Australia to keep rabbits off farmland.

Gabriel, who also did the score for Martin Scorcese's Last Temptation of Christ, says he has had plenty of film offers since that but has not taken them-partly because he feels he is a slow worker. He said: "But with Rabbit Proof Fence I was attracted because it was very independent in nature, it was very different from normal Hollywood fodder."

For a haunting movie soundtrack that blends past and present styles, you'll have to go a long way to beat Long Walk Home. 17-Jun-2002 2:00 PM