Mike Oldfield has come along way since Tubular Bells in 1973, where he not only launched his own career but also that of Richard Branson and Virgin Records. This new offering, Music of the Spheres from nearly two years ago immediately brought to my mind Holst’s Planets. Quite possibly that was Mike Oldfield’s secondary intent too. Perhaps it was to update that nearly one hundred year old recording for the rock/pop generations, if so, then he has succeeded admirably. Though his primary purpose was to interpret the old theory that every celestial body has an inner music, even though inaudible, and his Music of the Spheres is making it audible. Giving it breath. These 14 tracks will delight your musical senses.
Mike Oldfield’s contribution on the recording, other than producing and writing it all, was the classical guitar. It is magically woven in with the orchestra on many tracks, in particular on Harbinger (and its reprise), Shabda, Harmonia Mundi and Musica Universalis. The orchestra by the way is the Sinfonia Sfera Orchestra. Also they don’t figure on all tracks and there are some stripped down tracks, like Silhouette, which is mainly Oldfield’s classical guitar together with Lang Lang on piano. There is good variety of tempo too over the tracks. From the slower Harmonia Mundi with its impressive classical guitar, to the up tempo Aurora, which has a great violin section along with a choir being used as an instrument building to a very complex piece with a huge dynamic range. A pleasure for your senses! This use of the choir is again used on Prophecy, Aurora and Harmonia Mundi with great effect.
While essentially an instrumental album there are some vocal pieces over and above the use of the choir as mentioned above. There are two tracks, On My Heart and its reprise, on which Hayley Westenra provides her lovely vocals. These tracks provide a refreshing break from the instrumental assault of the rest of the album and Hayley’s voice is a delight to listen too and a great reference track for female vocals. Also on that track is the talent of Oldfield on the classical guitar. Certainly a favourite song for me on the album. One could go on about many of the tracks on this album, but the best test is to listen to it either by loudspeakers or headphones. The beauty of the latter is it gives a more personal performance. I should mention that although the album is divided into tracks and listed that way, it is really just one track. If you close your eyes so that you can’t look at the track numbers on the CD player you will be hard pressed to know when one track ends and the other starts. Consequently you need to set aside about 46 minutes to listen to this album in one sitting. Give yourself that one pleasure.
There is so much I haven’t mentioned in enough detail and I should go on about Lang Lang’s twinkling of the ivories, but will refrain. Just give it a listen. The recording of this album is very good indeed, much better than the usual recording of standard mainstream albums these days. I guess so it should be given Oldfield’s background and means. It was recorded at Abbey Road studios with the exception of the piano pieces which were recorded halfway around the world from Abbey Road at Legacy Recording Studios in New York. The complexity of the recording and the sound-staging is just great.
Sonics: 4.7/5 Music: 4.6/5
No, Good (New) Music 