Mike+oldfield

In 1973, Mike Oldfield burst onto the British music scene with his debut album Tubular Bells, two long instrumental suites in which Oldfield stitched together a series of melodies into a grandly scaled work in which he played the many instruments himself. The album was an audacious beginning to a career than saw him become one of the most respected artists in progressive rock, as well as a successful film composer. The Complete Mike Oldfield is a collection released in 1985 which features selections from his first ten solo albums, as well as highlights from his score for the film The Killing Fields.

For Islands, Mike Oldfield gathered a host of musicians to further his run of more mainstream-sounding albums. The album includes vocals by Bonnie Tyler, Kevin Ayers, and Max Bacon, as well as saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft (famous for his work on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street"), along with the album's producer and former Yes member Geoffrey Downes…

In 1973, Mike Oldfield burst onto the British music scene with his debut album Tubular Bells, two long instrumental suites in which Oldfield stitched together a series of melodies into a grandly scaled work in which he played the many instruments himself. The album was an audacious beginning to a career than saw him become one of the most respected artists in progressive rock, as well as a successful film composer. The Complete Mike Oldfield is a collection released in 1985 which features selections from his first ten solo albums, as well as highlights from his score for the film The Killing Fields.

Released in 2002 after a series of high-toned concept recordings, Tres Lunas is a bit of a return to straight-up, new age mood music for Mike Oldfield. The musician/composer once again spins carefully layered guitar and keyboard performances into a seemingly endless stream of space-age lullabies supported by the faintest of beats – most of which rarely exceed the intensity of a weak pulse…

With Mike Oldfield clearly beginning his shift away from ambitious multi-instrumental epics into more pop-inflected territory, what better time could there have been for his label to remind listeners that he'd always had an eye for the three-minute single? True, nothing here is as overt as "Family Man," the hit that he and his band wrote for Hall & Oates, but still a cover of ABBA's "Arrival" swiftly followed by such stirring delights as "Portsmouth," "In Dulci Jubilo," "On Horseback," "The Sailor's Hornpipe," and…

A slight African theme can be singled out around the edges of Amarok, as Oldfield employs such instruments as bongo and clay drums, mixed in with ukulele and flamenco guitar….

Tubular Bells II is the update and/or sequel to Mike Oldfield's landmark 1973 new age recording Tubular Bells, which will resonate forever as the haunting theme to The Exorcist. Here, Oldfield repeats his multi-instrumental performance, playing guitar, banjo, organ, percussion, mandolin, and the titular tubular bells, although in a nod to modernism, the latter instruments often appear as samples through Oldfield's Kurzweil synth rig. It's the piece's captivating main theme that again takes center stage here. The eight-minute opening track "Sentinel" plays it off of whining guitars and breathy female vocals. The latter element is a nice touch. The genre that the original Bells helped establish has come quite a ways in 20 years, and this fact isn't lost on Oldfield…

Elements is a beautifully packaged four-CD box set that essentially covers every aspect of Mike Oldfield's 20-year span as a multi-instrumentalist. The discs are housed in a sturdy, oversized slip case with an extensive booklet containing biographical information, as well as a breakdown of each of the instruments used throughout the 15 albums represented…