Released as another lengthy composition, Hergest Ridge was the album that followed Mike Oldfield's momentous Tubular Bells release, with many of the same instrumental elements and methods employed throughout its two sections. Because of the time of its release, Hergest Ridge was overshadowed by the effects of Oldfield's first album for Virgin, but even so he manages to invoke some interesting patches of music by using instruments like the glockenspiel, sleigh bells, the Lowrey organ, oboes, and a variety of mandolins and guitars to maintain the same type of diversity as Tubular Bells. Symphonic throughout most of the album's two parts, the highlight of Hergest Ridge is Oldfield's use of 90 multi-tracked guitars clustered together to create one of the most unique sounds ever to surface on his albums…
Released as another lengthy composition, Hergest Ridge was the album that followed Mike Oldfield's momentous Tubular Bells release, with many of the same instrumental elements and methods employed throughout its two sections…
Elements Box is a 4CD box set by Mike Oldfield released in 1993.
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…
Meant to show to the world at large that his music was ready for the concert stage, and that he was ready for live exposure (Oldfield suffered for many years from stage fright), Exposed is sometimes wonderful, sometimes bombastic. This double-CD set consists of performances of "Tubular Bells" and "Incantations," the latter abbreviated considerably, with "Guilty" tossed in for good measure.
Digitally Remastered Edition of Oldfield's Monumental Four CD Box Set that Covers his Recorded Work from the Albums "Tubular Bells" to "Heaven's Open". The Packaging Has also Been Modified to a Long Box Format, Including the Original 64 Page Booklet with Essays and Rare Photos.
Who doesn't love a lullaby? As a tribute "to all mothers and children", singer Montserrat Figueras offers this unusual program of 18 such songs from diverse sources and anonymous composers–Portuguese, English, Greek, Catalan, Hebrew, Sephardic, and North African–as well as pieces written by the likes of Byrd, Mussorgsky, Reger, Falla, Milhaud, and Pärt (two lullabies composed for this recording). Accompaniments show the stylish hand and always-tasteful imaginings of Jordi Savall and the instrumentalists of Hesperion XXI–viols, guitar, flutes, psaltery, harp–and, in three tracks, the piano of Paul Badura-Skoda. Although the liner notes prime us to expect very simple, repetitive tunes, Figueras transforms these ostensibly sleep-inducing songs into high, mind-and-ear-engaging art, embellishing, shaping, and imbuing them with deeply felt expression, sometimes wistful and at others fervent, but always delivered as if in intimate, personal touch with her listener(s).