Ok, we've already added Vangelis, Jarre, and Oldfield to the pot, but a stew like this wouldn't be complete without a dash of Brian Eno's work with David Bowie. It was a bit strange for Bowie, known more for traditional song forms, to release the spacy instrumentals during his Berlin trilogy... but then, Bowie is a true space cadet, being the star child of Syd Barrett...
While the instrumentals from Low are just as good, the pieces that influenced Earth and Exile comes from the "Heroes" album, the three-part "Sense of Doubt/Moss Garden/Neuköln." The description of these pieces lend themselves to the theme behind Earth and Exile. "Sense of Doubt" is dark and foreboding, while "Moss Garden" is more tranquil and ethereal. This is mirrored in the "exile's" attempt to find a sense of serenity within his own inner space. "Neuköln" particularly adds an extra poignancy; in keeping with the exile theme; according to David Buckley's book Strange Fascination: David Bowie-The Definitive Story, "the music has been interpreted as reflecting in part the rootlessness of the Turkish immigrants who made up a large proportion of the area's (Neukölln) population," while musically, the final section features Bowie's plaintive saxophone "booming out across a harbour of solitude, as if lost in fog." (From Wikipedia.) I find the sax to be rather "Floydish," and in turn, I find the sax on "Terminal Frost" from A Momentary Lapse of Reason to be reminiscent of this.
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