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Details
Text im Booklet:
"For a man still in his early twenties, the possibilities now seem
virtually limitless."
With these words, in 1975, the Guardian's rock critic summed up his feelings
in a review of "Ommadawn", convinced that there was still a lot of music
from a young player who had already given much. "Tubular Bells", under its
working title "Opus I" set the direction for Mike Oldfield, establishing him
as one of the most creative and original of contemporary composers. but the
accuracy of the Guardian's judgement has been thoroughly underlined by all
of his work since.
Born on the 25th May, 1953 in Reading, England, Mike Oldfield first
attracted attention at the age of 14, alongside his sister Sally in the folk
due Sallyangie. Even then, however, the young guitarist was interested in
more complex forms of expression and he separated from his sister after only
a short collaboration to start his own band, Barefeet, which proved to be
equally short-lived. He found moresatisfying possibilities for artistic
expression in Kevin Ayers And The Whole World, a group he joined in 1969,
originally as bassist. In this unit Soft Machine founder Ayers had gathered
together such radically different musicians as Robert Wyatt, David Bedford
and Lol Coxhill. The varied talents of this eccentric, colourful troupe,
whose repertoire overturned cliched forms of rock music and threw in
smatterings of jazz and minimalism, had a considerable influence on
Oldfield's later solo work. The group's archetypically English sense of
humour - ranging from whimsical to ionoclastic - also lingered. Oldfield
left Ayers' group in 1971, working mostly as a studio musician but also
taking time to develop an idea he had sketched out - a piece of music that
was destined to bring him instant worldwide fame in 1973. It was "Tubular
Bells", a composition of which he can still justifiably say today "I'm very
proud of it as a piece of music and always will be." His subsequent releases,
with the same degree of artistic intensity, have continued to reflect his
restless creatvity, his shifts of orientation and his evermaturing
musicianship.
On extensive tours Mike Oldfield has also presented his works live. Among
the most spectacular of these concerts were his 1983 London Jubilee, his
1979 debut tour, undertaken with an almost 50-strong backing band and the
London live premiere of "Tubular Bells", held in June 1973 at the Queen
Elizabeth Hall. The cast assembled for that first public performance read
like a Who's Who of the progressive underground of the day. Musicians from
Henry Cow and Gong, the Edgar Broughton Band, Kevin Ayers, Bonzo Dog boss
Viv Stanshall, Mick Taylor (then a Rolling Stone, later Dylan's guitarist)
and avant garde composer David Bedford, all took part in this event made
rock headlines.
Ten years later, in June 1983, Mike Oldfield adminitered the finishing
touches to a creative decade with the memorable "Crises" concert at the
London Wembley Arena.
To mark his jubilee he also founded his own record label. The first release
on Oldfield Music presented an artist whose work had influence Mike and who
had supported him from the beginning: David Bedford. His "Star Clusters,
Nebulae and Places in Devon/The Song Of The White Horse" was issued in the
summer of '83.
Since then Oldfield has focused increasingly on the possibilities of
electronic sound production. He built up his "Discovery" album by harnessing
the technological potential of the Fairlight computer and concurrently
composed the film score for "The Killing Fields" on which he uncovered
exotic harmonies and unorthodox combinations of sounds. These works from the
basis of a new search for expressive forms. The title "Discovery" also had a
symbolic meaning in 1984. What the future holds remains to be seen, but
there is still no limit in sight for all those glimpsed more than a decade
ago.
Anmerkung:
Kleiner Schönheitsfehler, das Geburtsdatum ist falsch.
Eine deutsche Übersetzung findet man im Cover der deutschen Langspielplatte.
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