Tubular Bells

Tubular Bells III is a record quite similar to Mike Oldfield's second update of the original classic, recorded just six years prior. The production methods are a bit more polished and the tone is more serious, but the music remains dreamy, somewhat overevocative new age-with-a-beat music, quite similar to Enigma – thanks to the Eastern textures of vocalist Amar on three tracks…

"Tubular Bells" is the debut album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973. It was the first album released by Virgin Records and an early cornerstone of the company's success.

This is a classic album of epic character with beautiful instrumentation and wonderful sonical imagery. It's heavily inspired by the Tubular Bells I from the early 70's, but Mike has done more than a cover of himself. He has reworked the tracks and added new influencies, vocal harmonies, new sonical structure to create something which sounds both familiar and completely new.
This is a strong and spiritual ”feeling good” musical journey. It takes the listener on a ride over a multidimensional and very inspiring landscape. This is not background music, nor is it pop or club oriented. It's a composition divided into sections with different tones.
What strikes me the most is the sheer musicality that flows so well throughout this album. Despite the heavy use of synthesizers, electric guitars and electronic sound effects, the album has an organic feel to it.
This is space music that lifts and inspires the soul. This recording feels much happier and broader than TB I.
It's one of Mike's best and inspiring album – because it's so beautiful. It's soothing for the soul.

"Tubular Bells II" is the 15th music album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1992.
The album - the first for his new record label, Warner Bros. Records, following an acrimonious departure from Virgin Records after twenty years - was conceived as a sequel to Oldfield's 1973 "Tubular Bells". Another sequel followed in 1998.

Mike Oldfield's 1973 classic Tubular Bells set a new precedent for soundtrack music, and walked so many different stylistic lines that it appealed to an enormous cross section of the record-buying public. If the original album flirted with prog rock, new age, neo-classical, and what would become ambient music, it only makes sense that 40 years later Tubular Bells and other early Oldfield material (including "Ommadawn") could be re-imagined as beat-driven electronica with Tubular Beats…