Mike recollection:

 "The film needed two distinct “kinds” of music from me. One was a sweeping orchestral, filmic score with a melody that could be used in many situations. I wanted that melody to be both poignant and triumphant, capable of being sad and happy, depending on the tempo and orchestration. The second “kind” of music was the completely ethnic sounding music, most of which is what they call “source” music, because rather than just adding mood for the audience, it was also part of the action – apparently being heard by the characters. For example, it might be a group of musicians in a market place or at a camp during a big dinner, that sort of thing. 

 I needed to study a lot of Iranian music (although the film was actually set between Afghanistan and Pakistan) and I did a tour of restaurants of those ethnicities in order to recruit drummers and even just a small crowd of people to stand in one corner of the studio and clap hands and shout to add reality to it all. I augmented this ragtag band with the top musicians of the day, percussion maestro Ray Cooper, Chris Karan, the drummer of the Dudley Moore trio, who happens also to be an expert in ethnic drums including Tabla. I also gathered some fantastic Western experts on instruments from the region,- oud, santur and others.

 The film came out and flopped badly – even though we had a great time at the premieres in London and at Radio City Music Hall on Sixth Avenue, New York. But the record did something different. “Caravan Song” by Barbara Dickson started leaping up the UK  singles charts. The album began to sell. Not just in England but everywhere.

 People just liked it. It didn’t matter to them that they hadn’t seen the movie, they just liked the album. People used it for all sorts of things. Katerina Witt, the East German skating champion used it for her most famous ice dance routine, and it receives good attention from Classic Radio stations around the world."