Two Ships (Lyrics)

By Sally Oldfield

Love me now, save your words and stuff for later
It’s enough to know we’re fated to be one
Hold me now, don’t you try to go and leave me
Baby, please, you must believe me, it’s begun

We’re two ships, passing in the night-time
Knowing it’s the right time to give in to what we feel
We’re two ships, passing in the night-time
Hoping that come the light time we’ll wake up and find it’s real

Stay a while; it feels so good to know you’re near me
And to know your kisses hear me when I speak to them
Come with me; let me take you to the morning
Of the night which might not ever come again

We’re two ships, passing in the night-time
Knowing it’s the right time to give in to what we feel
We’re two ships, passing in the night time
Hoping that come the light time we’ll wake up and find it’s real

Come with me; let me take you to the morning
Of the night which might not ever come again

We’re two ships, passing in the night-time
Knowing it’s the right time to give in to what we feel
We’re two ships, passing in the night time
Hoping that come the light time we’ll wake up and find it’s real

We’re two ships, passing in the night-time
Knowing it’s the right time to give in to what we feel

Strangers (Lyrics)

By Mike Oldfield and Sally Oldfield.

We’re looking for the strangers
With sunlight in their eyes
Who lived on earth
When man was new
When time was just a coloured dew
That grew inside their minds

There was a time upon the earth
When men were all of noble birth
And beautiful and fair
There was a world within their brain
That grew from love as summer rain
In their eyes that wandered free

Banquet On The Water (Lyrics)

By Mike Oldfield and Sally Oldfield

White sand on the western sea
Is the dark side of Galilee

I don’t want your Apollo of frozen steel
I don’t want your lies you teach my children to feel
So keep off my lovers moon or he’ll blind thee
As he walks in beauty on water

He didn’t need an aeroplane
As we went flying thro’ the starry rain
High over rivers of light seas of pearl
High into the sun
Then we spent the night walking on the water
Hey man catch me white bait
Hey man let’s have a banquet
Don’t wanna know your name
You’re just my lover
Just wanna spend the night
Walking beside you on the water

You look like my lover but your words are cold
You say words like him but thinking has made you grow old
So keep off my lovers moon or he’ll blind thee
As he walks in beauty on water

He didn’t need an aeroplane
As we went flying thro’ the starry rain
High over rivers of light seas of pearl
High into the sun
Then we spent the night walking on the water
Hey man catch me white bait
Hey man let’s have a banquet
Don’t wanna know your name
You’re just my lover
Just wanna spend the night
Walking beside you on the water

Collaborations

Viele Musiker unterstützen sich auf den verschiedensten Arten gegenseitig und arbeiten zusammen. So wie Mike Oldfield immer wieder Gastmusiker für seine Musik einsetzt, so kommt es auch vor das er selbst an “fremden” Alben mitarbeitet.

Auf den nachfolgenden Seite werden einige Alben vorgestellt, die durch Kollaboration entstanden sind.

The Sallyangie The Whole World Gong Journey Into Space
children-of-the-sun-cover_small the-whole-world-2-cover_small journey_into_space_10682_sm
1968 1970 1979 2012

2003-2013

tb2003_dvd-a_cover_smallMit fast einem halben Jahr Verspätung, erschien am 09.02.2004 die erste reine Audio DVD von Mike Oldfield.

Auf dieser DVD-A hat Mike Oldfield sämtliche Register bei der Abmischung für “Tubular Bells 2003” gezogen. Die Fans sind sich jedoch bis heute noch nicht einig, ob diese Dolby Digitale 5.1 Abmischung wirklich das wahre ist. Über einen Erfolg bei der Audio-DVD von “Tubular Bells 2003” braucht man nicht wirklich zu reden.

Sehr fleißig zeigte sich Mike Oldfield auch zum Anfang des Jahres 2004. Am 12.03.2004 präsentierte er das zweite Spiel aus seiner Music Virtual Reality (MVR) Reihe.

MAESTRO, so der Titel für das PC-Game, nach dem es bis zum Beginn des Jahres noch “The Tube World” heißen sollte. Im Gegensatz zu “Tres Lunas” gibt es jedoch kaum neue Soundfiles. Vielmehr wurden Bestandteile aus “Tubular Bells 2003” verwendet.

Mike Oldfield, zeigt sich zum Beginn des Jahres gegenüber seinen Fans offen wir nie. Seine Homepage hat, unter der Leitung von Fanny Oldfield, ganz neue Formen angenommen. Erstmals gibt es ein eigenes Forum, in dem auch Mike Oldfield recht aktiv ist.

Weiterlesen

1993-2003

tsode_cd_cover_smallWir schreiben das Jahr 1995. Zwei Jahre nach Mike Oldfield´s zwanzigjährigem Jubiläum erscheint “The Songs of Distant Earth” und erobert einige Herzen der Fans.

tsode_2_cd_cover_smallErstmals enthält eine CD von ihm, einen CD-Rom Track. Allerdings ist der nur für Mac-Nutzer zu betrachten. Der Track ist eine kurzer interaktive Reise durch eine virtuelle Welt mit kleinen Spieleinlagen. Insgesamt gelangten drei Versionen von “The Songs Of Distant Earth” auf dem Markt in Deutschland.

Das Album basiert gedanklich auf die Story des gleichnamigen Romans von Arthur C. Clarke, einem Sciene-Fiction Autor. Da Mike Oldfield von dem Roman fasziniert war, versuchte er den Roman in Musik umzusetzen. Der Verkauf enttäuschte jedoch sehr, da Mike Oldfield anscheinend nicht das Publikum in der breiten Masse mit seinen Stücken ansprach.

Das Video für “Let There Be Light” war sehr Eindrucksvoll und komplett digital. Für das Jahr 1995 war es das modernste Digital erstellte Video der Welt. Die Produzenten erhielten einen Award.

Weiterlesen

1973-1983

„Tubular Bells“ war die erfolgreichste Veröffentlichung von Virgin Records trotz großer Konkurrenz durch Künstler wie Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds und Genesis. „Tubular Bells“ war viele Monate an der Spitze der englischen Charts, bis es 1974 von „Hergest Ridge“ abgelöst wurde. Aber selbst danach, gelang es dem Album immer wieder in die Charts einzusteigen.

hr_cd_cover_small“Hergest Ridge” ist eine weitere LP, mit sphärischen Klängen und kosmischen Harmonien. Mike Oldfields Album wirkte Stressfrei und seine Musik erreichte sein Publikum, das allerdings sehr gespalten darauf reagierte.
Mike Oldfield bewies mit „Hergest Ridge“, das er mit „Tubular Bells“ nicht nur ein „One Hit Wonder“ war, sondern das Zeug zu mehr hatte.

the_exorcist_xs1974 produzierte William Friedkin den Film „The Exorcist“. Dabei wurde die Einleitung (“Introduktion”) und einige Passagen aus „Tubular Bells“ verwendet. Durch die Verknüpfung von Musik und Film grauste es die Zuschauer noch mehr, als man nur von dem Film hätte erwarten können. Einen direkten Zusammenhang mit Mike Oldfield, gibt es bei “Der Exorzist” nicht.

Weiterlesen

1953-1973

Michael Gordon Oldfield wurde am 15.Mai 1953 in Reading (England), in der Nähe von London geboren. Mike Oldfield war das dritte Kind von Dr. Raymond Henry Oldfield und Maureen Bernadine Oldfield geb. Liston. Seine älteren Geschwister heißen, Terry Oldfield (*1949) und Sally Oldfield (*1947).

Michael Gordon Oldfield wurde am 15.Mai 1953 in Reading (England), in der Nähe von London geboren. Mike Oldfield war das dritte Kind von Dr. Raymond Henry Oldfield und Maureen Bernadine Oldfield geb. Liston. Seine älteren Geschwister heißen, Terry Oldfield (*1949) und Sally Oldfield (*1947).

Weiterlesen

Balloons (Lyrics)

By Mike Oldfield and Sally Oldfield

Little bluebird fluttering into my hand
Sun falls in love over the land
I will live forever just you wait and see
No matter what you do to my bluebird and me

[Left Channel]
Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clement’s
I’ll give you five farthings say the bells of St. Martins
Hear comes a chopper to chop off your head
Chip chop chip your dead

[Right channel]
Little bluebird fluttering into my hand
Sun falls in love over the land
I will live forever just you wait and see
No matter what you do to my bluebird and me

I remember the day when I was the night
And the sun was my eyes in the moon
But I changed into day and the night flew away
And I sang to my lover the moon
I remember the sound when my hair felt the ground
And the words that were written on you
But you were not there so I slept on the stair
And you came in a lemon balloon
Who are you?
Who are you?

I remember the breeze and the soft creamy cheese
That we gave to the doves on the lawn
But the grass was so green that it soaked up the cream
And the doves flew away and were gone
But I saw the smiles that were deep in their eyes
And I saw the joke was on you but I could not laugh
I went back to the grass and you came in a rainbow balloon
Who are you? Who are you?

Journey Into Space

journey_into_space_10682_sm“Journey Into Space” ist der Kategorie Weltmusik zuzuordnen. Terry Oldfield, anders als sein Bruder, ist mehr für die ruhigen Stücke bekannt und ist musikalisch auf einer ganz anderen Ebene als Mike. Dennoch gibt es viele Alben, an denen sie gemeinsam gearbeitet haben.

Terry Oldfield erklärt “Journey Into Space” so. “Journey Into Space” zaubert Bilder, führt über den inneren Weg in alle Richtungen in das innere Licht. Ich suche dieses Potenzial in uns allen. Und weiter: “Die musikalische Reise wurde nicht als solcher geplant – jeder Track entfaltet als eine Reflexion des Tages “.

Mike Oldfield spielt bei drei Songs Gitarre.

 

First Release: 21. September 2012
Label: New Earth

Details

Track Listing:

1. Origin (Guitar – Mike Oldfield) (4:49)
2. Traveller (4:35)
3. Flight Of The Eagle (Guitar – Mike Oldfield) (5:55)
4. Gayatri (7:26)
5. Shadow Dancer (6:02)
6. Jai Ram (5:23)
7. Moola Mantra (6:10)
8. Mangalam (6:06)
9. Dancer In The Void (Guitar – Mike Oldfield) (6:22)
10. Be Still (7:51)

Terry Oldfield: Bansuri, Flute, Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals
Mike Oldfield: Bansuri, Flute, Keyboards, Pan Pipes, Vocals
Allegra Oldfield: Piano
Soraya Saraswati: Vocals
Radha Bornstein: Vocals
Al Melville: Keyboards

Two Sides: The Very Best Of Mike Oldfield

Two-Sides-The-Very-Best-Of-Mike-OldfieldMike Oldfields Musik ist unvergleichlich stimmungsvoll, spirituell, atmosphärisch und sinnlich … dass er eine absolute britische Ikone ist, steht da völlig außer Frage.

Two Sides ist eine von Mike persönlich zusammengestellte Retrospektive.

Der Autodidakt und Multi-Instrumentalist, Produzent und Komponist hat im Laufe seiner Karriere mit einer Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Musikstile gearbeitet – von Folk und Progressive Rock bis Jazz, Electronic, Ambient, New Age, World, Pop und sogar Disco.

So spiegelt sich auch hier eine breite Palette seiner Arbeit wider:
Mit CD 1 entführt er uns in den esoterischen, experimentellen Teil seines Universums und auf CD 2 finden sich seine populärsten Songs und Hitsingles.

Eine perfekte Zusammenfassung von Mike Oldfields Musik für jeden Fan und jenen, die es werden wollen.

So die hingebungsvolle Beschreibung, für das neue Produkt “Two Sides: The Very Best Of Mike Oldfield”.

Man muss sich zu recht fragen lassen, ob man sie noch alle auf der Pfanne hat. Und das in jeglicher Hinsicht. Es gibt mal wieder ein “Best of”. Besser gesagt ein “The Very Best Of Mike Oldfield”. Dinge auf die alle Fans schon so lange gewartet haben. Nachdem wir “Platinum” und “Q.E.2″ als “DELUXE EDITION” etc., für ein paar weitere Soundschnipsel des Meisters und in den Schrank gestellt haben. Denn den Rest kennen wir schon, nun musste es mal wieder ein “Very Best Of” sein.

Was die “Deluxe Edition” betrifft sind wir im Jahre 2012 nun rechnerisch im Veröffentlichungsjahre 1980 angekommen. Immerhin die ersten sechs von rund vierundzwanzig Alben gibt es nun frisch gepresst.

Wer Mike Oldfield erst entdecken möchte, der ist mit der “Two Sides: The Very Best Of Mike Oldfield” allerdings recht gut bedient. Eine Seite mit einer schönen Auswahl von Instrumental-Kompositionen und die zweite Seite mit den wichtigsten Pop-Songs, Marke Mike Oldfield. Mit der Seite zwei gibt es unter anderen Max Bacon, Bonnie Tyler, Roger Chapman und Maggie Reilly für die Ohren. Den Jüngeren, unter uns, wird das wohl nicht viel sagen.

Für treue Fans, mal ganz hübsch anzuhören, damit man das Doppel-Album anschließend wieder in den Schrank stellen kann. Keine Scheibe, die mich zum Beispiel, in Begeisterungsstürme ausbrechen lässt.

Einen Bonus erhält der kauf begeisterte Fan bis zum 31.12.2012 auf der offiziellen Webseite von Mike Oldfield. Derzeit ist der sagenhafte Bonus jedoch nur ein Video-Interview.

Alles ein bisschen sehr schade und dazu fantasielos.

Warum Mike Oldfield bei der Eröffnungsfeier für Olympia 2012 in seiner Heimat London aufgetreten ist, dürfte nun jedem klar sein. Bisschen Eigenwerbung tut wohl nach langer Zeit auf den Bahamas doch ganz gut.

Wermutstropfen, wer die Feier gesehen hat, bekam mal wieder eine neue Version von “Tubular Bells” zu hören bekommen. Das wäre als Download zu “Two Sides: The Very Best Of Mike Oldfield” tatsächlich mal ein Bonus gewesen.

Veröffentlicht am: 27.07.2012
Label: Mercury / Universal Music

 

Tracks

Disk 1 von 2

01 Tubular Bells Start
02 Ommadawn Start
03 Crises Start
04 The Lake Start
05 Amarok Part 1 Start
06 Amarok Part 2 Start
07 Sentinel Start
08 Supernova Start
09 Ascension Start
10 The Tempest Start

Disk 2 von 2

01 Guilty Start
02 Family Man Start
03 Five Miles Out Start
04 Moonlight Shadow Start
05 Shadow On The Wall Start
06 To France Start
07 Etude Start
08 Magic Touch Start
09 Islands Start
10 Heaven’s Open Start
11 Tattoo Start
12 The Song of the Sun Start
13 Summit Day Start
14 Lake Constance Start
15 Broad Sunlit Uplands Start
16 The Doge’s Palace Start
17 Amber Light Start
18 Angelique Start
19 On My Heart


Details

Im Booklet sind die Aufzeichnungen von Gesprächen zwischen Mike Oldfield und Mark Powell, zu den einzelnen Tracks. Eine Übersetzung liegt noch nicht vor, daher vorerst nur die englische Version.
There are moments in all of these pieces where I feel that I reached a musical high spot. In many cases, I reached these high spots by taking a long and sometimes tortuous route! It’s a bit like climbing Mount Everest: Reaching the summit is the ultimate goal and achievement, but it takes months of effort to reach the top of the mountain and you have to steel yourself to climbing back down again! In all of the instrumental tracks and the songs presented here, I think I got as close to perfection as I could get in my eyes, even though they may or may not have been critically or commercially successful at the time. Two Sides is essentially a collection of the pieces that best represent how I feel about my music. It is a selection of work that I think is artistically relevant and is of great personal value to me.

Tubular Bells

For me, the creation of the music of Tubular Bells was the easy part. The real effort was getting a record company to commit to recording it. I can remember the day I finally went into the Manor Studio as though it was yesterday. I stood watching a person unload a van full of the musical instruments I had ordered for the session. The only thing I didn’t have was an engineer, as Tom Newman was nowhere to be seen and I was left pacing up and down the studio and the kitchen asking everyone if they knew where my engineer was. He eventually arrived looking very flustered and and looked suspiciously at me when we met that afternoon. We began work in the evening and over the next three or four days, he became as enthralled and excited as I was with the music. I can’t really remember the end of the sessions, as I was exhausted with the effort of making the album. I do recall that we got a huge empty champagne bottle and took it down to The Jolly Boatman pub near the studio and filled it up with Guinness and spent the entire night swigging the Guinness from the bottle whilst we worked on the mix of [the] album until dawn. Eventually I just passed out from exhaustion.

The promotional concert that took place when the album was released and all of the bewildering success that followed is now all quite hazy to me. I couldn’t relate to any of it. I do remember John Peel playing the entire album however. Nothing much changed in my life. I was still penniless and it took over a year for the money to start trickling in. I had to borrow the money from Richard Branson to buy my first house, The Beacon in Kington. Virgin pressured me into performing a promotional concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, for which Richard gave me his Bentley (which was falling to pieces). I did one interview with someone from Melody Maker and found it such an unpleasant experience that I just withdrew. Richard would get on the phone to me insisting that I agree to tour America and did promotional work, but I was living up on top of Bradnor Hill and just wanted to be left alone.

Ommadawn

Ommadawn was really me putting my musical creativity on record and seeing what happened. I worked on lots of ideas, so much so that the original master tapes finally pell to pieces and I had to start work all over again. I just seemed to switch to efficiency mode and I recorded the entire album in in two months. When it was finished I was very happy with it. By that time I had my own studio with a Neve mixing desk and life was quite nice.

I had a number of friends in the Kington area, who as Leslie Penning who was a crazy medieval musician, and a friends at a local restaurant, Penrhos Court, called Martin Griffiths. An ex-parachute instructor, he introduced me to flying. We used to call him Le Patron. I would go to the restaurant and have a drink and a conversation at the bar with him and I could relax. The old drummer from Kevin Ayers’ band, William Murray, came to live in a wing of the house and acted as a sort of personal assistant. I also started to learn to fly with Martin and enjoyed that. I think all of this contributed to the creative process of making Ommadawn. I also began to have some power at Virgin Records and could ask for anything I wanted to make a record. I remember wanting some African drums on Ommadawn and so I called up Simon Draper at Virgin who sorted this for me. He also arranged for Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains to play uillean pipes on the sessions.

Crises, Moonlight Shadow, Shadow on the Wall

My then tour manager, Alan Hornshall, mentioned a gifted drummer called Simon Phillips to me. I met Simon and he came down to see me and we got on well. He offered to assist in the production of the Crises album and we gathered together some musicians, as I had done with Guilty, and from those sessions came Moonlight Shadow and Shadow on the Wall.

In the song Moonlight Shadow we had created this fantastic backing track, but then I had the problem of deciding what should be done with it. I spent three months trying our different things. Hazel O’Connor came in to the studio to do a version, called Moment of Passion, but that didn’t seem to work. After tearing my hair out for some time deciding what to do with the track, I decided to book Maggie Reilly for a session the following day and that night, I sat down with a very nice bottle of Bordeaux and my rhyming dictionary and spent the night writing the lyrics. Maggie came in and started singing the lyrics in a rock style and I asked her to sing more in the manner of a lullaby as softly as possible. It took some time to get things right and to achieve the lovely closeness of a sound of someone almost whispering in your ear. We virtually recorded the vocal track syllable by syllable and we did a great deal of drop-ins. It took a few days to mix it and it was quite a task. Looking back, I think [it] was very much worth it. It became a huge hit and was number one throughout Europe. Roger Chapman was fantastic on the track Shadow on the Wall. Back in 1969, I went for an audition with Family as their bass player. When Ric Grech had left the band to join Blind Faith, I turned up at the Country Club in Hampstead and Roger listened to my playing and saw some promise in me. The other members of the band weren’t interested in me joining the band, but Roger and I had some connection. When I wrote Shadow on the Wall I thought of Roger as the singer. He was a tough, but lovely man and did a great job.

The Lake, To France

I rented a chalet in the ski resort of Villars in Switzerland and I recorded Discovery there. The track The Lake was inspired by my time in Switzerland, as I used to pass Lake Geneva on the way up the resort. It was a beautiful experience. The piece reminds me of learning to ski and going on these skiing trips over mountain passes with dark clouds above and the snow falling, or skiing downhill at night holding torches. It was absolutely magical. I think the introduction is the best music for snow that I’ve heard! Once more Maggie Reilly came in to the recording sessions and sang on To France, which was released as a single.

Amarok

Amarok is one of my favourite albums. Richard Branson and Simon Draper at Virgin Records wanted to call the album Tubular Bells II because they thought it was so good. I felt that if anything, the album was closer to Ommadawn. It had a lot of similarities as it featured Clodagh Simmons on vocals and the bodhran (the Irish drum) was prominent. With Amarok, I decided to switch myself into creative mode. I was living in a house called Roughwood at the time and I had a lovely studio there. The atmosphere was nice and {I} decided that that I’d work every day from ten in the morning to six at night. I don’t think I had a day off for three or four months, I just spent the time on the album. I approached the music by recording every idea that I thought of. I didn’t spend time deliberating, I just put ideas down as I had them. I decided that I wouldn’t use any sequencers or quantizing, the album would just feature me playing real live instruments.

I began recording with two bodhrans playing a pattern, I then added as I went on. I finished the process by recording 50 singers provided by the South African group Jabula at CTS Studios in Wembley. They translated my lyrics into the Xhosa language and it sounded magnificent. I also had the idea of having Margaret Thatcher speaking towards the end of the album, and Janet Brown did her magnificent Thatcher impersonation! There were other touches such as having the sound of footsteps walking around an art exhibition. In my mind I could see the paintings. All these ideas came together. The whole piece was an improvisation. I think it’s as good as Tubular Bells and will continue to stand alongside that album as one of my best for many years to come.

Sentinel

Tubular Bells II was conceived when I left Virgin Records. I made a demo with Tom Newman and I presented it to various record companies. I managed to find a manager in Clive Banks, who used to be the boss of Island Records. He knew everyone globally, and I had every record company boss in my home studio to listen to the demo of Tubular Bells II. Clive looked for offers and the best one came from Rob Dickens at Warner Brothers. It was a fantastic experience. I had always wanted to work with Trevor Horn as a producer and the day after suggesting this, he arrived at my door. We recorded the album in Los Angeles and I rented a house and installed a portable studio and away we went. It was a lovely album to work on and I enjoyed working with Trevor.

Supernova, Ascension

The Songs of Distant Earth project was an idea of Rob Dickens. He gave me the book by Arthur C. Clarke, although I may have already read it. He thought it would be a good follow up to Tubular Bells II. I trusted Rob’s judgment and thought it would be an interesting project. I was also lucky enough to be able to visit Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka and spend an afternoon with him, which was a dream come true for me, as I had been a fan of his work for many years. There are some wonderful ideas on that album.

The Tempest, On My Heart

I had wanted to write a long classical piece for an orchestra and Music of the Spheres was the result. Although there had been an orchestral version of Tubular Bells, I wasn’t involved with that project and had never written an entire work specifically for an orchestra. I didn’t have the musical training to write classical music and so I enlisted the help of the composer Karl Jenkins to work on the project. Karl had been a member of Soft Machine, and he reminded me when I first contacted him that we had actually met and worked together when I performed Tubular Bells for BBC TV in 1973. He played the oboe during that performance and I remember that he only had a few notes to play, and he sat patiently throughout the piece waiting for this section. I was living near Bristol and he was based in the Gower Peninsula in Wales and so he came to see me and agreed to do the orchestrations. I would make a sample version of the work, using MIDI and so on, and this would then be put into a computer programme called Sibelius which printed a score of the music. I was looking for a suitable vocalist and my record company for this album, Universal Classics and Jazz, suggested Hayley Westenra, who came to Abbey Road Studios and sang beautifully on the piece On My Heart.

The Tempest was another piece from the album that I was very pleased with. Sibelius was one of the first classical composers that really made an impression on me. He had a way of combining fast strings with very slow brass parts. It was a very odd time signature for a classic work, but it came together perfectly.

To promote the album a special concert was staged in Bilbao at the Guggenheim Museum. I had foolishly agreed to do twenty or so interviews the day of the concert and was pretty exhausted. The concert concert was the first time that I had actually played with an orchestra following a conductor, instead of playing to a click track. Conducting is an imprecise thing. One would think that the downward stroke of the baton represented the actual click, but because an orchestra actually plays behind, the beat actually looks more like the upward stroke of the baton, so I was trying to follow this wondering which baton movements I would follow. The combination of this and feeling tired from the promotional interviews led me to play the most god awful wrong note during my solo part that was a complete semi-tone out of tune. It felt as though I had made the most terrible smell and Hayley Westenra wrinkled her nose up and glanced at me – that’s what happens when a rock musician enters the classical music world!

Guilty

I got the idea to go to New York and seek out some of the best session musicians that I could find and write a track specifically with them in mind. My friend Clodagh Simmons was friendly with the composer Philip Glass. She introduced me to his engineer, Kurt Munkasci, who booked the musicians for the session. I wrote down a chord chart for Guilty and gave that to them and away we went. I remember bringing the tape back to England and playing it to Simon Draper in his office and he said “it’s a hit”. I thought he must have been wrong as it was an instrumental track, but he was correct. We had to go on Top of the Pops and Guilty was a hit single.

Family Man, Five Miles Out

Rick Fenn came up with the guitar riff to Family Man. I wrote the chorus and Maggie Reilly wrote the verses and over a few weeks we worked as a band would work. I had the idea of the chorus first and roughly sang it to Maggie who then went away and wrote the verses with Tim. We had Morris Pert on percussion and Mike Frye played drums and it was a great experience. A lot of successful things are accidents that are just the result of exploring various ideas.

The title track of Five Miles Out came from an experience I had flying from Barcelona to San Sebastian, over the Pyrenees mountains. The whole of the Pyrenees was covered in thunderstorms and our rookie pilot hadn’t got the correct weather forecast so we flew right into it. All the other flights in the area were cancelled and ours was the only plane in the air. By the time I came to write Five Miles Out, I’d got my pilot’s license and I went down to my local pub in Denham, lined up a few pints of Guinness and sat with my rhyming dictionary and notepad and wrote down all of the aeronautical terms I could think of and came up with the lyrics. The track was great fun to work on, although it took about four months to complete it, and the song went through four or five different versions before it was completed. It’s one of my favourite tracks.

Etude

My soundtrack to the film The Killing Fields was a project that was partially instigated by Richard Branson, who took me to meet David Puttnam, and he secured me the role of soundtrack composer for the film. I’d made the music fit to the picture beautifully, but I was working to the rushes of the film, rather than to the final edit. When it came to final cut, they also cut up my music and put [it] with different scenes to those I had written the score for. The music was so quiet in the final film dub that it was impossible to hear most of the time. Every scene involving soldiers or warfare had to have a military snare drum going rat-a-tat-tat. It was very disappointing and it seemed they wanted clichéd film music instead of something special. The Killing Fields was my first, and to date last film soundtrack.

Magic Touch, Islands

When I lived in Gloucestershire, Steve Winwood was a fairly frequent visitor. He lived quite close to Througham where I lived. When I moved away from Gloucestershire we kept in touch and when Moonlight Shadow was a big hit he called me and asked me to write something for him. I thought it was a great idea and spent the next few months writing a song. But in the meantime he’d gone to the States and recorded Back in the High Life and had a hit with Higher Love. I presented him with my humble offering shortly after, but by that time he’d gone off into the stratosphere in terms of superstardom and didn’t seem interested in recording the song I’d written. That was Magic Touch. I found a singer called Max Bacon to sing on it and he did a very good job. It’s a great track, and Virgin made a great promotional video and I edited the video at my own studio.

I spent ages working on the track Islands and was having trouble thinking of a good singer who could do justice to the song. I got in contact with Bonnie Tyler and asked her if she would sing on the track and to my delight, she agreed. She came to the studio with her husband and as soon as she sang the first few notes of the song I got a huge lump in my throat and the whole song came to life. She was a lovely lady with a very special voice. Andy Mackay from Roxy Music played oboe on the track and I was very happy with it.

Heaven’s Open

Heaven’s Open was the title track of my final album for Virgin. I decided to sing all of the songs on the album myself. It was a challenging but rewarding experience. With the release of the album I was finally freed from my Virgin contract.

Tattoo

The concert at Edinburgh Castle was the idea of Clive Banks. I must admit to raising my eyebrows when it was suggested, but it turned out to be a major event with BBC Television coming along to cover it and it was screened an hour later in TV. It was incredible how easy it was to secure radio play for the album. I went from having to struggle to get any attention on TV and radio to suddenly being able to walk into daytime BBC Radio One and have plenty of attention because of Tubular Bells II. Soon after the Edinburgh concert, the album reached no. 1, which was fantastic.

The Song of the Sun

For Voyager, I had made a few trips to Galacia in Northern Spain and had got friendly with some local musicians who were in a band called Luar na Lubre. They were astonishingly good. They featured a bagpipe player called Benito Romero. I invited them to act as my support band on a later tour. The Song of the Sun was on one of Luar na Lubre’s albums and it was such a lovely Celtic song, and I was writing a Celtic album, that I thought I’d record a version of it. Davy Spillane, also played on the album, and he was a great uillean pipes player.

Summit Day

This piece was inspired by my love of the mountains. Ever since I lived in Switzerland, I’ve loved the mountains and I’ve always gone back there every few years. I had been reading a lot of books at that time, including one about climbing Mount Everest. The lengths a person has to go through to achieve the goal of climbing Everest are incredible. It takes months of acclimatization, and then in mountaineering terms there’s always the “summit day”, the culmination of months of preparation and training. I had the idea to write a tune on the guitar about that.

Lake Constance, Broad Sunlight Uplands, The Doge’s Palace, Amber Light

The Millennium Bell was an album I had written for an event that took place on 31st December 1999 in Berlin. Prior to the millennium, everyone was talking about what a momentous event it would be heading into a new century. When it finally came about most people thought it was a damp squib. The Berlin show was a strange event. On stage it was minus four degrees centigrade and there was a biting cold wind. The on-stage heating didn’t work and the audience (which numbered 200,000) were freezing too! I’m glad I made the record, as there are some beautiful pieces of music on it. Although the album was a critical and commercial failure, for me those compositions are special, hence their appearance on this collection.

Angelique

The album Light + Shade was recorded after a period when I didn’t have a record contract. When I finally signed a contract with Universal Music, I was overjoyed to be with a major record label and I wanted to make a record that was both creatively and commercially successful. I had the idea to make a two-CD collection that featured almost chill-out music on one disc, and more up-tempo, almost club like music on the other. I wanted to do almost all of it using software, apart from guitars, as it was something I had never done before. The album coincided with me selling all of my studio equipment to a studio company, who turned up with a huge truck, which carted off my Neve desk, tape machines, monitors, rack effects; everything went. I went from having a room that was chock a block with equipment to one that contained a table, computer, a monitor, two small speakers! It was like a snake shedding its skin, and I reinvented myself. There are a few good moments on the album, of which Angelique is perhaps the best.

The Winner Of The Classical BRIT Awards is…

Wie bereits im März 2009 berichtet, war Mike Oldfield mit seinem Album „Music Of The Spheres“ bei den “Classical BRIT Awards” nominiert. Dabei ging er jedoch leer aus.

Die Gewinner der “Classical BRIT Awards” findet man unter www.classicalsbrits.co.uk

Die Gewinner für das beste Album heißen Royal Scots Dragoon Guards mit Ihrem Album „Spirit of the Glen – Journey“.

Einen Beitrag dazu in Englisch und eine Hörprobe gibt es hier.

Mehr zu Royal Scots Dragoon Guards findet man auf de.wikipedia.org oder auf www.scotsdg.co.uk/.

Mit Sicherheit ein verdienter Sieg, bei dem was es zu hören gibt.

Weiterlesen

Nominierung von “Music Of The Spheres”

Zum zehnten Mal finden in diesem Jahr die “Classical BRIT Awards” statt. Zu den in diesem Jahr nominierten Künstlern, wie Andrea Bocelli, Hayley Westenra und Katherine Jenkins, wurde auch Mike Oldfield mit “Music Of The Spheres” zum Album des Jahres für Classical Brit Awards nominiert.

Weitere Nominierungen werden am 20. April 2009 bekannt gegeben. Folgende Kategorien stehen noch aus: Male Artist Of The Year, Female Artist Of The Year, Composer Of The Year, Young British Performer/Group, Soundtrack Of The Year, Critics’ Award.

Die Preisträger werden am 14. Mai 2009 bei “The Classical BRIT Awards” in der Londoner Royal Albert Hall bekannt gegeben. Wer für Mike Oldfields “Music Of The Spheres” Voten möchte, kann das unter www.classicalbrits.co.uk/voting/ machen.

Album “Children of the sun” neu aufgelegt

Es sind eigentlich keine direkte News zu Mike Oldfield, allerdings wurde das Album “Children of the sun” neu aufgelegt. Und da auf einer zweiten CD bisher unveröffentlichte Tracks drauf sind, sind es doch Mike Oldfield News.

Music Of The Spheres in den Charts

Weitere Platzierungen von “Music Of The Spheres” in diversen Hitparaden:

Frankreich – 2. Woche – 102. Platz
Österreich – 2. Woche – 62. Platz
Italien – 2. Woche – 56. Platz
Schweiz – 2. Woche – 48. Platz
Sweden – 2. Woche – 31. Platz
Dänemark – 2.Woche – 24. Platz
Ungarn – 2. Woche – 13.Platz
Spanien – 2. Woche – 7. Platz

Außerdem gab es noch in der ersten Woche Platz 9 in den Billboard-Euro-Charts und Platz 13 der kanadischen Klassik-Charts.

Music Of The Spheres – Hitparaden Notierungen

Nach Erscheinen des neuen Albums “Music Of The Spheres” von Mike Oldfield gibt es erste Meldungen aus diversen Hitparaden.

Irland – 1. Woche – Platz 87
Frankreich – 1. Woche – Platz 72
Östereich – 1. Woche – Platz 64
Schweiz – 1. Woche – Platz 37
Deutschland – 1. Woche – Platz 14
England – 1. Woche – Platz 9
Spanien – 1. Woche – Platz 7

Warten wir mal die zweite Woche ab.

Music Of The Spheres Verlosung

Es gibt drei limitierte CD/DVD Boxen von “Music of the Spheres” gewinnen.

Für alle Mike Oldfield Fans gibt es hier den passenden Gewinn zum neuen Album. Songwriters.de verlost drei limitierte “Music of the Spheres” CD/DVD Pakete in einer edlen, geprägten Dose, mit umfangreichem Booklet und einer zusätzlichen sphärischen Beilage. (Einsendeschluss:28.03.2008).

Direkt zu Songwriters.de

Music Of The Spheres

music-of-the-spheres-cover-xsmIn “This Is London“, der Onlineausgabe vom Evening Standard, verriet Mike Oldfield, 2006, in einem Interview den Arbeitstitel seines neuen Albums.

“Music of the Spheres” so nennt er es, an dem er derzeit gemeinsam mit klassischen Komponisten Karl Jenkins arbeitet. Einen seiner größten Erfolge hatte der heute dreiundsechzig jährige Karl Jenkins mit dem Ensemble Adiemus.

Da in der Szene derzeit darüber debattiert wird, ob Mike Oldfield tatsächlich an einem größeren Instrumentalstück arbeitet, konnte man diese Verbindung als eine Bestätigung dafür sehen.

In Zusammenarbeit mit Karl Jenkins und dem Pianisten Lang Lang begannen die Aufnahmen im Juni 2007. Ursprünglich für den 31. Oktober 2007 angekündigt, wurde die Veröffentlichung jedoch mehrfach verschoben.  Bereits am 19. September 2007 wurde das Album im Rahmen der Popkomm in Berlin vorgestellt.  Das Album erschien jedoch erst am 14. März 2008.

Zuvor,  am 7. März 2008 wurde das Album im Guggenheim-Museum in Bilbao, Spanien, vor geladenen Gästen und unter Beteiligung von Hayley Westenra uraufgeführt.

Mit “Music Of The Spheres” erfüllt Mike Oldfield seinen Fans den Wunsch nach einem ganzheitlichen in sich geschlossenem Album. Es hat seine ruhigen und sehr aufregenden Momente. Insgesamt würde ich den Vergleich mit der Orchesteraufnahme von “Tubular Bells” machen. Mit der Ausnahme das es zu “Music Of The Spheres” nicht die entsprechende Fassung mit E-Guitar und entsprechenden Innovationen gibt. Es ist aus meiner Sicht einfach ein klassisch angehautes Album, das sich wunderbar dazu eignet als Filmmusik zu dienen. Insgesamt ein harmonisches Album mit Höhen und Tiefen, jedoch nicht wirklich spektakulär.

 

First Release: 17.03.2008
Label: Mercury Records

 

 

 

Besonderheiten

Im Gegensatz zu früheren Werken spielt Oldfield nur klassische Gitarre.
Auf dem gesamten Album gibt es keine Loops.
Die Tracks 2–7 und 8–14 gehen fließend ineinander über.
Lang Lang kam nie ins Studio nach London, sondern spielte seinen Teil in einem New York Studio ein.
Mike Oldfield komponierte das Album komplett am Computer und ließ es dann von Karl Jenkins für ein Orchester umschreiben.
Wie schon bei früheren Alben ließ Mike Oldfield Elemente von Tubular Bells mit einfließen. Man erkennt eine Abwandlung des berühmten Opening Theme wieder (Tracks 1 + 6). Auch die “Tubular Bells”  sind als Instrument mit dabei (Track 14).
Track 14 ist strukturiert wie das Titel Finale aus Tubular Bells 2003 und The Bell aus Tubular Bells II, das erkennt man an den verschiedenen Instrumente, die nacheinander dasselbe Thema aufnehmen; allerdings werden die Instrumente nicht angesagt, und es sind nur die vier Instrumente, Klavier, Glockenspiel, Gitarre und Tubular Bells.

Details

 

Part 1
1. Harbinger – 04.08
2. Animus – 03.09
3. Silhouette – 03.19
4. Shabda – 04.00
5. The Tempest – 05.48
6. Harbinger (reprise) – 01.30
7. On My Heart – 02.27 Featuring Hayley Westenra

Part 2
8. Aurora – 03.42
9. Prophecy – 02.54
10. On My Heart (reprise) – 01.16
11. Harmonia Mudi – 03.46
12. The Other Side – 01.28
13. Empyrean – 01.37
14. Musica Universalis – 06.24

Total running time: 45.30

Gitarre: Mike Oldfield
Klavier: Lang Lang
Gesang: Hayley Westenra
Orchestra: Sinfonia Sfera Orchestra

 

 

 

 

 

 

Das Sinfonia Sfera Orchestra sind:

Erste Violinen: Richard Stutt (leader)
Judith Temppleman
Tom Piggott-Smith
Harriott McKenzie
Tristan Gurney
Jemma McCrisken
Amy Cardigan
Joanna McWeeney
Gillan Cameron
Louisa Adridge
Kotono Sato
Jeremy Morris
Miriam Teppich
Vladimir Naumov
Zweite Violine: Peter Camble-Kelly
Emma Parker
Sophie Appleton
Jenny Chang
Holly Maleham
David Lyon
Nicholas Levy
Joanna Watts
Lucy Hartley
Jo West
Sarah Carter
Elizabeth Neil
Bratsche: John Thorn
Rachel Robson
Edward Vancerspar
Emma Owens
Vincent Green
Olly Burton
Rachel Dyker
Sarah Chapman
Fay Sweet
Holly Butler
Cellos: Sally Pendlebury
Jonny Byers
Chris Worsey
Verity Harding
Chris Fish
Lucy Payne
Morwenna Del Mar
Ben Trigg
Bass: Sian Hicks
Hugh Sparrow
Jeremy Watt
Kylie Davis
Frances Casey
Ben Griffis
Flöte: Gareth Davis
Juliette Bausor
Oboe: Roy Carter
Rosie Jenkins
Klarinetten: Chris Richards
Nick Ellis
Fagott: Steven Reay
Louise Chapman
Horn: Peter Francomb
Dave Tollington
Joe Walters
Evgeny Chebykin
Trompete: Gareth Small
Edward Pascal
Tom Watson
Posaune: Simon Willis
James Adams
Bass Posaune: Rob Collinson
Tuba: Alex Kidston
Pauke: Steve Henderson
Percussion: Gary Kettel
Paul Clarvis
Sam Walton
Neil Percy
Chor: Mary Carewe
Jacqueline Barron
Nicole Tibbels
Mae McKenna
Heather Cairncross
Sarah Eyden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deutsche Artikel zur Premiere in Bilbao

In den Yahoo News gibt es einen Artikel zum Premiere Konzert von “Music Of The Spheres” von und mit Mike Oldfield.

In Bilbao wurde dieses Werk vom Sinfonieorchester Euskadi und dem Chor der Stadt zum ersten Mal aufgeführt. Dirigent war Enrique Ugarte, Oldfield spielte klassische Konzertgitarre, Hayley Westenra sang das programmatische “On My Heart” – das Licht malt Farben auf das Herz. Im Auditorium des Guggenheim-Museums entfaltete die Musik einen eigenen Klang, deutlich anders als auf dem Album, das am kommenden Freitag (14. März) bei Universal erscheint. Oldfield freute sich im Interview vor der Premiere darauf, das Werk erstmals als Ganzes aufzuführen und zu hören – die Produktion sei stückweise erfolgt. Die Aufführung wurde mit Ovationen gefeiert.

Den ganzen Artikel findest du unter http://de.news.yahoo.com

Ein, in der Tonqualität recht schlechten, Videoausschnitt vom Konzert, findet man auf der Seite www.elpais.com.

Premiere von Music of the Spheres

Nein, sagt Mike Oldfield zu seiner sinfonischen Dichtung “Music of the Spheres”, man dürfe sich das nicht so vorstellen, dass er nun auch mal ein großes Werk im klassischen Stil habe komponieren wollen. Das habe im Gegenteil ganz klein im Stil von Kinderliedern angefangen, Stück für Stück, wie ein großes Puzzle, und dann sei es eben ganz logisch ein Werk für Sinfonieorchester, Chor, Gitarre und Harfe geworden. Am Freitagabend hatte es im Guggenheim-Museum von Bilbao 35 Jahre nach seinem Megaerfolg mit “Tubular Bells” Weltpremiere.

So die Einleitung und Nachlese zum Konzert in Bilbao auf Yahoo.de.

Erstes Interview aus Bilbao

Bekannte Sequenzen neu verpackt mit einem spanischen Beitrag aus Bilbao, präsentiert uns www.eitb24.com erste Eindrücke aus Bilbao.

Zum Großteil wurde das Promovideo verwendet und mit spanischen Kommentaren hinterlegt. Dazu gibt es ein Interview mit Mike Oldfield im Guggenheimmuseum.

– Leider nicht mehr verfügbar. –

Digitale Single als Vorgeschmack

In seinen News berichtet Mike Oldfield, dass am 03.03.2008 der Song “Spheres” zum neuem Album, “Music Of The Spheres” erscheinen wird.

Dieser Song ist die Grundidee für sein neustes Album. Den Song hat Mike Oldfield komplett alleine eingespielt. Also ohne Karl Jenkins oder einem anderem Musiker. Laut Mike Oldfield wird der Song “Spheres” nur bei entsprechend guten Download Anbieter zu finden sein. “Spheres” erscheint auf keinem anderem Album und auch nicht auf “Music Of The Spheres”. Mike Oldfield pur!

Quelle: www.mikeoldfield.com

Zur Premiere von Music Of The Spheres

…ins Guggenheimmuseum nach Bilbao, mit einer Eintrittskarte von Dark Star.

Wie schon berichtet, findet die Veranstaltung, zu der nur geladene Gäste und die Presse Zutritt haben, am 07. März 2008 um 09:00 Uhr statt.

Mike Oldfield wird gemeinsam mit Hayley Westenra und der Begleitung von Euskadiko Orchestra und dem Bilbao Choral Society gemeinsam das neue Album präsentieren.

Wie heute aus dem Newsletter von Dark Star zu lesen war verlost das Mike Oldfield Fan-Magazin Eintrittskarten zur Live Premiere von “Music Of The Spheres”.

Es wird von Dark Star ein nicht näher bezeichnetes Kontingent an Eintrittskarten verlost. Diese sind nicht übertragbar, sondern nur für den entsprechenden Teilnehmer gültig. Des Weiteren wird nur die Eintrittskarte verlost. Für An- und Abreise, Unterkunft und Verpflegung muss man selber aufkommen.

Einsendeschluss ist der 02. März 2008 um 09:00 Uhr. Die Gewinner werden telefonisch benachrichtigt.

Was muss man tun? Man muss fünf Orte benennen, an den Mike Oldfield in den vergangen Jahren gelebt hat.

Hier der direkte Link zu DarkStar.

Ich wünsche viel Erfolg!

07.03.2008 Guggenheimmuseum

Eine weitere Bestätigung für das einzige Konzert von Mike Oldfield zur Veröffentlichung seines neuen Album “Music of the spheres”, vermeldet die englisch spanische Website thinkSpain.

Orchestra Director Inigo Alberdi hat gesagt, dass es nicht leicht ist, diese Veranstaltung mit allen organisieren. Obwohl dieser Veranstaltungsort nicht das erste Mal für so einen Zweck verwendet wird.

Im vergangenen Jahr, zweitgleich mit dem zehnten Jahrestages des Guggenheimmuseums, stellte Björk aus dem “Volta” Album vor. The Red Hot Chili Peppers debütierten ihr neuntes Album “Stadium Arcadium”.

www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

Albumpräsentation nur in Bilbao

Mike Oldfield präsentiert sein neuestes Album ausschließlich in Bilbao.

Der britische Komponist gibt ein Konzert im Guggenheim-Museum Bilbao 10 Tage vor der Veröffentlichung seines neuen Albums “Music of the Spheres”. Es liegen keine weiteren Daten zu den Tickets oder das Publikum vor.

Wie schon vermutet wird dies eine Presseveranstaltung mit geladenen Gästen. Eine Aufführung von “Music of the Spheres” wird es wohl nur einmalig im baskischen Museum am 07.03.2008 geben. Der Chor von Bilbao und das baskische Symphony Orchestra begleitet dabei Mike Oldfield während des Konzertes.

So eine Pressemeldung aus Spanien.