Mike Oldfield 1973-1979

Have you ever wondered what it would be like hear the sound of the Tubular Bells chiming at sunrise on top of Hergest Ridge at the Ommadawn of a new day? Looking out to sea from the top of the ridge, you'd be able to see the sun casting its delicate Incantations of light across a calm Platinum silver sea. In the distance, you might be lucky enough to see the QE2 sailing Five Miles Out from Southampton, where the lucky passengers are temporarily escaping the world's Crises by  embarking on a voyage of Discovery to exotic tropical Islands. A voyage aboard a luxury cruise liner promises to be an Earth Moving experience of a lifetime, where you could sail to the exotic island of Amarok in Indonesia, or witness a tropical monsoon when the Heavens Open over Java. It's almost as exotic as the astronauts who journeyed to the Moon aboard gleaming silver rockets, which glinted in the Sun like Tubular Bells II of stainless steel. As the space travellers journeyed into orbit around the Moon, they'd hear The Songs of Distant Earth aboard their Voyager spacecraft. Maybe they'd listen to Tubular Bells III and the distinctive sound of Mike Oldfield's Guitars, whilst the tolling of The Millennium Bell on the album announces the beginning of a new century. The Tres Lunas (or three lunar astronauts) would be travelling between Light + Shade as their spacecraft orbits the Moon, where the Music of the Spheres can be heard across space and time. Maybe one day in the not too distant future, a spacecraft will land a Man on the Rocks of Mars, before the long journey home and a welcome Return to Ommadawn here on Earth. 

Mike Oldfield is unique in the vast ocean that is Progoceana. A singular soundsmith of pure inovative brilliance.

1. Ommadawn

Tubular Bells or Ommadawn, I'm very fond of Hergest Ridge, as well.

Edited by David_D - December 07 2021 at 15:15

I'm voting for Hergest Ridge because, 1) I'm shocked nobody else has, and 2) it was the first Oldfield I heard, and I like it nearly as much as Ommadawn.

Ommadawn for me, though I also like the rest.

richardh wrote: For me Ommadawn is the greatest contemporary classical piece of music of the last 50 years. Only Vangelis was anywhere close with Heaven and Hell (what a year 1975 was!) Tubular Bells is indeed very 'rough'. Totally inspired mostly and if the bad joke bits were edited out it would be top dog. Hergest Ridge and Incantations are also brilliant. Its ridiculous he produced all these straight off the bat before apparently getting himself 'well' and losing his genius as a result (so the story goes). I actually like all his albums up to Discovery in 1984 but then after that its a bit sketchy. I do think he got right back up there with Amarok and Songs Of Distant Earth. Return To Ommadawn is also very creditable.

I don't think he totally lost his genious... though certainly after Incantations there have been many albums that don't quiet reach the same heights, there have been moments here and there that recover the brilliance, or are just great with a different sound. Songs from Distant Earth is particularly great. And Tubular Bells 3 has some really wonderful peaks, as well as Amarok. And the very Return to Ommadawn is as great as any of the 70's albums. Then, about the Tubular Bells being very rough, there is the 2003 re-recording... which is actually the one I got (given that it was the one available when I was getting those albums), and even though it's not a very popular opinion, I think I actually like it better than the original (or perhaps it's just because I'm more used to the way it sounds). I would like to know which of the two studio versions Mike actually prefers.

Ommadawn

Easy choice.

Hergest Ridge comes in close second followed by Tubular Bells. The rest, I'm less familiar with.

Ommadawn is the only one of those I listen to regularly.

Ommadawn, just ahead of Hergest Ridge.