OMMADAWN

Ommadawn is a fanciful melodic album with a few well-crafted themes and wonderful instrumentation. Employing a Celtic flavor throughout, Mike Oldfield has hewn a breathtaking musical work; it is captivating right from the beginning and rarely grows dull.

"Ommadawn (Part 1)" The airy opening immediately whisks me away to some forgotten realm- immediately there is a clear and memorable melody that rests in a minimalistic symphonic basket. It grows into a spiraling wonder, with what sounds like a swarm of faux guitars. It culminates in a regal symphony of colorful and bright sound, but soon it becomes a delightful, lighthearted romp. After some electric guitar aerobics, Oldfield returns to the original melody, infusing it with a Middle Eastern flair and dropping it into an ominous minor key. The distant vocals under the keyboard run are both haunting and soothing. The main theme returns once more in a more urgent fashion, with pulsating bass, wails of electric guitar, and those ghostly cries.

"Ommadawn (Part 2)" The second part begins with heavy synthetic chords, and maintains a stately, menacing air until it tapers off around five minutes. At this point, there is the calm plucking of acoustic guitar, soon to be joined by the boisterous Northumbrian bagpipes. Following this, expect a jaunty, lengthy electric guitar solo that eventually stops unexpectedly. The final three minutes is an actual song, with tender acoustic guitar and brittle electrics running over it. It intersperses the spirited singing of the refrain with a spoken word rhyming verse.