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.
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.
The Essential Mike Oldfield is a good overview of highlights from Mike Oldfield's Virgin and Warner recordings. Some of the tracks are included in their original form, while others – including, inexplicably, "Tubular Bells III" – are present in edited or remixed versions…
Mike Oldfield’s iconic “Tubular Bells” took the world by storm when it launched in 1973, and nearly 50 years later continues to sell over 100,000 albums per year, with a total of 17.5 million copies sold worldwide and 18 million streams. In honor of the 50th anniversary of this ground-breaking album, Cleopatra Records will be releasing a new studio album entitled Tubular Bells - 50th Anniversary Celebration.
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…
Crack all the jokes you want about Mike Oldfield and his Tubular Bells becoming the hit theme song for The Exorcist. While Oldfield is an amazing guitarist who could play with the best of them, with a lithe synth touch that became a trademark, the bottom line is that the man is a serious composer…
Crack all the jokes you want about Mike Oldfield and his Tubular Bells becoming the hit theme song for The Exorcist. While Oldfield is an amazing guitarist who could play with the best of them, with a lithe synth touch that became a trademark, the bottom line is that the man is a serious composer. All the proof one needs apart from his own records like Incantations and Hergest Ridge is this killer movie score. While Oldfield used a purely Western and neo-classical formal approach to write the music for Roland Joffé's dramatization of true events, his musical mates were among the best in the business at helping him to bring it off: David Bedford wrote arrangements and directed the choir, while Eberhard Schoener helped to conduct and direct another choir (!) and master percussionist Morris Pert lent his talents to the mix as well…