Tubular Bells

In this recording, Roscoe Mitchell offers what amounts to a composer self-portrait in continually changing colours and textures, reflecting on his own history while looking toward the future. Two pieces including the title composition draw upon the full percussion instrumentarium of the Art Ensemble of Chicago a panorama of gongs, bells, rattles, sirens, hand drums and more. Recorded in 2015 on the occasion of the AACM’s 50th anniversary, Bells for the South Side is released half a century after the founding of the Art Ensemble - the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, as it was originally called.

After a tumultuous parting from his first label, Virgin, famed British new age artist/composer Mike Oldfield signed an extensive deal with Warner Bros which would carry him into the next millennium. His first act at Warner was to deliver 1992's Tubular Bells II, the instrumental sequel to his groundbreaking 1973 debut. Over the coming decade, he would release seven more albums with the label ranging in style from Celtic to worldbeat to dance-oriented music. The Studio Albums 1992-2003 includes all eight of his Warner releases in one affordable box set…

Mike Oldfield is a bit of an enigma. On the one hand is the artist who almost single-handedly ushered in the genre of new age music with his epic masterpiece Tubular Bells, and then followed that with several albums, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, and even Tubular Bells II and III, all with tracks that invariable meandered for half an hour or more through various musical ideas and soundscapes – and no doubt would have gone on a lot longer had it not been for the constraints of vinyl and the restrictions on the length of musical compositions that would physically fit on two sides of a piece of plastic with micro grooves…

A few years back Gonzo released the original soundtrack for Tony Palmer's "The Space Movie" 1979 documentary by Mike Oldfield. It consisted of consists of the un-edited sountrack (movie commentaries and all) which includes pieces from Oldfield's released "Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge", "Ommadawn" and "Portsmouth" and also excerpts from what was Oldfield's then-new album, "Incantations". The film also made use of the orchestral arrangements of Oldfield's first two albums, "The Orchestral Tubular Bells" and notably "The Orchestral Hergest Ridge" (with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra), which has never been released before. And now… The demos.

Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is a British musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album Tubular Bells (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. He is regarded as one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists of all time. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards, percussion, and vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music.