Long Walk Home

1	Jigalong 4:03
2	Stealing the Children 3:19
3	Unlocking the Door 1:57
4	The Tracker 2:47
5	Running to the Rain 3:18
6	On the Map 0:59
7	A Sense of Home 1:59
8	Go Away Mr. Evans 5:14
9	Moodoo's Secret 3:02
10	Gracie's Recapture 4:40
11	Crossing the Salt Pan 5:07
12	The Return, Pts. 1-3 10:25
13	Ngankarrparni (Sky Blue) (Reprise) 6:01
14	The Rabbit-Proof Fence 1:08
15	Cloudless 4:47

Barnes & Noble

Inspired by Phillip Noyce's Rabbit Proof Fence, a film about three kidnapped Australian Aborigine children heading home in an attempt to escape forced cultural assimilation, Peter Gabriel created a stunning score that rivals his best-known soundtrack work, Passion, for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. Minimizing the use of traditional Western instruments such as guitar and horns, Gabriel instead utilizes native Aboriginal choral and instrumental support in creating ethereal soundscapes that are as bleak and foreboding as the Australian Outback, where this true story is set. A low hum, echoing the drone of the native Australian didgeridoo, reverberates throughout the album, upping the quotient of menace found within the crashing and clattering beats of "Stealing the Children"; the eerie swooshing and mechanized thump piercing "Moodo's Secret"; and the wailing drone of "The Tracker." Chasing away the dark clouds of gloom that permeate most of the preceding tracks is "Cloudless," a gorgeous finale steeped in the sounds of Aboriginal chants, along with a blanket of undulating beats and Gabriel's own distinctive harmonies. Far from your run-of-the-mill film score, Long Walk Home is a fascinating trip to the crossroads of contemporary and Aboriginal music. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

Nearly a full decade after the release of Us, Peter Gabriel finally returned with new music in the summer of 2002 -- but it wasn't a new studio album, it was the soundtrack to Phillip Noyce's return to independent Australian cinema, Rabbit-Proof Fence. The film tells the true story of three Aboriginal girls who make a return to their home after being abducted by the government to serve as domestic help to a white family in 1931; as they make their journey through the Outback to their home, they follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, which was constructed to separate Aborigines from white settlers. This, understandably, is a moody, emotional piece, and Gabriel was an ideal choice for the soundtrack, since he proved with his score for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ that he could stay faithful to the indigenous music of the region while synthesizing it with his own synth-based art-rock, providing a haunting, emotionally resonant soundtrack to the film. He does a similar thing here, using Aboriginal music as a foundation for much of his music, yet winding up with a score that's ultimately closer to Birdy than Passion. That's largely due to its long stretches of moody, spare keyboards, which dominate much of the album. The keyboards are the dominant sound here, not the rhythms, but it all blends together for a very evocative, dark yet hopeful set of music. It's not a splashy comeback, then, but a quiet return to something Gabriel does best -- creating soundscapes that are at once alien and familiar, eerie yet comforting. That he hasn't done this in a while does not diminish the fact that he's created a strong instrumental piece that stands on its own, outside of the film, holding its own with Birdy and Passion. And it only whets the appetite for a full-scale comeback. Stephen Thomas Erlewine