Long Walk Home
Music from The Rabbit-Proof Fence
Peter Gabriel
12238 Real World

Electrifying performer, visual revolutionary, human rights activist - there is no one quite like Peter Gabriel.

With LONG WALK HOME - soundtrack to the film Rabbit-Proof Fence - Gabriel returns to scoring for the first time since his award-winning PASSION (soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ). The project encompasses many of Gabriel's deeply-held beliefs - of personal independence, essential human freedoms, and a broader appreciation for authentic music from all cultures around the globe.

For this soundtrack, Gabriel sought sounds to express the natural ambience of the Australian outback setting of the film. Aboriginal percussion instruments and chant, indigenous bird song, and the accomplished didgeridoo of Ganga Giri are entwined with Gabriel's signature scoring. Longtime collaborators David Rhodes and Richard Evans lay their guitars aside to mix and arrange the amalgam of sounds into a perfect ambient palette.

The result is a powerful, epic and deeply atmospheric work, reminiscent of his earlier PASSION but with the unmistakable flavor of the film and distinctive culture of native Australia.

Based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the true story of 3 half-caste girls snatched from their homes and spirited 1,500 miles away to be trained as house servants for white families. After a daring escape, the girls journey across a wild continent to make their way home. Their only hope is to find the rabbit-proof fence, the enormous barrier that dissects the country to abate rabbit migration. To find the fence means a guide home and their very survival. Directed by Phillip Noyce, the film features moving performances by Kenneth Branagh, and by Everlyn Sampi, Tiana Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan as the girls.

Click here to read the transcript from a radio feature with Phillip Noyce and Peter Gabriel.