Mike Oldfield TUBULAR.NET

Amarok

Release Date: June 14, 1990
Location: Roughwood Croft, choir recorded at CTS Studios, Wembley

0:00 Fast Riff Intro
2:32 Intro
5:46 Climax I - 12 Strings
6:18 Soft Bodrhan
7:20 Rachmaninov I
8:35 Soft Bodrhan 2
9:29 Rachmaninov II
9:56 Roses
10:42 Reprise I - Intro
12:45 Scot
13:16 Didlybom
15:00 Mad Bit
15:56 Run In
16:11 Hoover
18:00 Fast Riff
19:57 Lion
21:57 Fast Waltz
23:42 Stop
24:33 Mad Bit 2
24:46 Fast Waltz 2
25:06 Mandolin
26:07 Intermission
26:23 Boat
29:27 Intro Reprise 2
32:07 Big Roses
33:13 Green Green
34:24 Slow Waltz
36:04 Lion Reprise
37:05 Mandolin Reprise
37:47 TV am/Hoover/Scot
39:50 Fast Riff Reprise
42:22 Boat Reprise
43:32 12 Rep / Intro Waltz
44:12 Green Reprise
44:46 Africa I: Far Build
48:00 Africa I: Far Dip (**)
48:46 Africa I: Pre Climax
49:32 Africa I: 12 Climax
50:24 Africa I: Climax I
51:00 Africa II: Bridge
51:17 Africa II: Riff
51:34 Africa II: Boats
51:52 Africa II: Bridge II
52:10 Africa II: Climax II
54:22 Africa III: Baker

Also Appearing

Clodagh Simonds, Bridget St. John, Janet Brown

Paddy Moloney

African Musicians organized by Julian Bahula

Produced and Engineered by Tom Newman

Cover and Booklet by William Murray

Instruments:
Bowed Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, 12-String Guitar, Classical Guitar, Bass guitar, Sitar Guitar, Glorfindel Guitar, Highly Strung Guitar, Flamenco Guitar, Bazouki, Mandolin, Ukulele, Steinway Piano, Banjo, Farfisa Organ, Lowrey Organ, Shoes, Hoover, Glockenspiel, Marimba, Bodhran, Northumbrian Bagpipes, Clay drums, Triangle, Tambourine, Wonga Box, Bell Tree, Sticks, Finger Cymbals, Toy dog, Melodica, Chairs, Psaltry, Spinet, Flamenco Guitar, Jew's Harp, Penny Whistles, Bass Whistles, Punch Ball and Club, Spoons, Referee's Whistle, Fingernails, Pan Pipes, Glass of Water, Guitar Tuner, Violin, Door, Face Slap, Toothbrush and teeth, Vox Organ, Fake Radio, Contents of Aeromodeller's toolbox, Glass, Hammer and Bucket, Fake Firework, Rototom, Cabasa, Bongos, Orchestral Bass Drum, Timpani, not much synth at all really, Kalimba, Long Thin metallic hanging Tubes.

Personal Assistant: Jeremy Parker

Technical Adviser: Richard Barrie

A fully digital recording

Cover by William Murray

Notes

Amarok was to represent a return to Mike's roots in hand played music, abandoning his sequencers and using minimal editing, with producer Tom Newman making sure Mike stuck to the rules.

The album has a wide dynamic range, partly out of Mike's desire to make Amarok an "angry, protest album" against Virgin, saying "I was imagining Simon Draper of Virgin driving his Lamborghini with the music up loud, so I put these enormous brass stabs in there, obscene amounts of volume just to irritate him." (MOJO, November 1998).

As part of the quest for high dynamic range, the album was the first of Mike's to be recorded to digital tape, using a Sony 3348 48 track machine. Technical engineer Richard Barrie says "I’d spent a lot of time trying to get the studio incredibly quiet, so the dynamic range was really big, and what I wanted to at the front end of the album, but he wouldn’t let me do it, was I wanted to go to the other end of the live room and drop a pin on the floor and say ‘this is the bottom of the dynamic range’, up to...you know, to the maximum...but he wouldn’t let me do it!"

Richard Barrie also recalls some of the lengths that they went to in order to capture some of Amarok's more unusual sounds, notably the sound of Mike's sports car revving up: "I ended up putting microphones all the way down the drive, and then Michael was in the car with a set of headphones on - and Tom was in the studio - waiting for the cue to go, and then I had to break the headphones link, so that Michael could then go revving up the drive! But that was it, the sport on Amarok was no editing, everything had to be played at the correct point in the thing. Mad! Absolutely mad!"

There is a hidden message in Amarok - at 48:05 some morse code can be heard (played on a bright synth sound). It actually spells out "F*** off RB" (with RB standing for Richard Branson). Mike was annoyed at Virgin's lack of promotion for the album (although if he really had made it deliberately uncommercial, Mike would surely have expected them not to promote it...), and so took out his own advertising campaign. Part of the campaign was Mike offering a prize of £1000 to the first person to find the hidden message.

The cover photograph was taken by Mike's old friend William Murray, who also wrote the story found inside the CD booklet. Mike helped spark off William's interest in photography during the mid 70s, when he gave William a camera as a present, leading to him eventually becoming a professional photographer. It was, according to Murray, intended to be "reminiscent of Ommadawn" and he told David Porter that "I thought this will be easy, put him behind a bit of glass, put some water on the glass, ....woof, no trouble. Then you realise how good Bailey is, it's not as easy as I thought by a long shot." (David Porter interview, 1990). The metal lettering was hand crafted from brass by Tom Newman.

[Richard Barrie quotes from an interview by Richard Carter, February 12th 2014]

Personnel

Instruments

Miscellaneous stringed instruments
Violin
Ukulele
Bowed Psaltery
John Le Voi Bouzouki	Flat-backed bouzouki, sold via Chandler Guitars in February 2006.
Gibson RB-250 Mastertone Banjo	Mike appeared with this banjo at the Tubular Bells II premiere concert in Edinburgh. Its appearance is consistent with a post-1960s RB-250, so our current best guess is that it's the same banjo which Mike used on every album from Ommadawn onwards.	Also used in Ommadawn, Crises, Tubular Bells II
Mike Vanden 'MJV' F4 style Mandolin	Originally bought from John Alvey Turner's music shop. Sold via Chandler Guitars in December 2007.	Also used in Voyager, Tubular Bells 2003
Percussion instruments
Bodhrán	18" bodhrán decorated with a St John Eagle from the Book of Kells. The bodhrán (pronounced as bough-rahn or bow-rahn) is an Irish frame drum made from goatskin, played with a beater called a tipper or cípín. A bodhrán was also used on Return To Ommadawn in 2016.	Also used in Ommadawn, Incantations, Five Miles Out, Voyager, Return To Ommadawn
Electric guitars
Danelectro/Coral Sitar	An electric guitar with a special bridge to produce a buzzy sitar-like sound.	Also used in Islands, Guitars
1965 Fender Telecaster	Neck date of November 1965 (s/n L807280). This guitar used to be owned by Marc Bolan. Mike added an extra pickup - made by Bill Lawrence - to it, with the help of his dad in their garden shed. Mike later took all the finish off the guitar, leaving it as bare wood. The guitar was offered through Chandler for £20,000 but wasn’t sold. It was then to be auctioned off by Bonhams on June 20, 2007 (Lot 391) with an estimate of £25,000 - 35,000. Next attempt was on January 15, 2008 (Lot 361, estimate £10,000 - 15,000). The last attempt was made on December 16, 2009 (Lot 277, estimate £8,000 - 12,000). All attempts failed due to low bids and the guitar was withdrawn. It was sold in January 2010 by charity SANE to English guitarist Keith Smart. Video	Also used in Tubular Bells, Ommadawn, Five Miles Out, Tubular Bells 2003
1963 Fender Stratocaster, fiesta red	s/n L08044. Mike once said in an interview (The Raft) that this was his favourite guitar and that he'd never sell it. However, he finally decided to part company with it in December 2007 and sold it through Chandler guitars, fetching £30,000.	Also used in Discovery, Tubular Bells II, The Songs of Distant Earth, Voyager, Tubular Bells III, Guitars, Tubular Bells 2003, Light + Shade
1957 Gibson Les Paul TV model	s/n 7 2031. This guitar was modified with a 2 octave fretboard. It was bought by a Scottish fan.	Also used in Ommadawn, Incantations, Five Miles Out, Discovery
Höfner Shorty Super "Tubular Bells Guitar"	Unusual presentation guitar, 1970s, the miniature, natural-finish body with pickup marked Shadow, built-in battery-powered speaker with on/off switch, one volume and one tone control, black scratchplate with Mike Oldfield in white, backplate engraved "To Mike from all your friends from Virgin Germany", neck with dot markers, headstock with Schaller machineheads and 'Tubular Bells' logo, with strap
1989 PRS Signature, Vintage Yellow	A particularly high grade, limited edition, version of the Custom 24. In Vintage Yellow.	Also used in Earth Moving, Tubular Bells II, The Songs of Distant Earth, Voyager, Tubular Bells III, Guitars, Tubular Bells 2003, Light + Shade, Return To Ommadawn
Vox 'electric mandolin'	This is actually a mini 12 string electric guitar. Borrowed from Tom Newman, it used to belong to Cat Stevens.
Nylon-string guitars
1974 Jose Ramirez 1A Traditional	s/n 7987	Also used in Hergest Ridge, The Orchestral Tubular Bells, Ommadawn, Voyager, Guitars, Tubular Bells 2003, Light + Shade
1975 Jose Ramirez 1A Flamenco	s/n 8666. Sold through Chandler to a French Fan and later resold to a German fan.	Also used in Ommadawn, QE2, Tubular Bells II, Guitars, Tubular Bells 2003
Steel-string acoustic guitars
1960 Martin 00-21NY	Sold via Chandler Guitars to a Scottish fan in December 2007.	[?] This is likely the guitar used for the opening Fast Riff. Also used in Voyager, Guitars, Tubular Bells 2003
1973 Martin D-28-12	Serial number 335787. Sold to a German fan through Chandler Guitars in December 2007.	Also used in Ommadawn, Discovery, Tubular Bells III
Bass guitars
PRS Bass 4, Vintage Yellow		Also used in Tubular Bells II
Guitar effects
Roland GP-8	Guitar effects processor used for Mike's trademark 90s distorted guitar sound. Sold via ebay in December 2007.	Also used in Tubular Bells II, The Songs of Distant Earth, Tubular Bells 2003, Return To Ommadawn
Pianos
Steinway Model B	Studio grand piano. No 137655. When this piano was auctioned, it was listed as being a 6'11" piano, c.1910, with a rosewood case.	Also used in Tubular Bells 2003
Organs
Farfisa Professional Organ	Return To Ommadawn used a Farfisa sotware emulation.	Having sold his original Farfisa organ, Mike obtained another in preparation for Tubular Bells II. He found it in a school for the disabled, and swapped it for his Yamaha DX7. Also used in Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, Crises, Tubular Bells II, Tubular Bells 2003, Return To Ommadawn
1970 Hammond L.122 Organ	Return To Ommadawn used an Hammond software simulation.	Also used in Heaven's Open, Tubular Bells II, Tubular Bells 2003, Return To Ommadawn
Lowrey Organ		Also used in Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Tubular Bells II, Tubular Bells 2003
Vox Continental Organ	Return To Ommadawn used a Vox software emulation.	Also used in Return To Ommadawn
Synthesisers
Roland VP-330	Analogue vocoder keyboard, often also used for its string sound.	Mike told H & SR Magazine that he'd used this on the album for "some robot voices". Also used in Crises, Discovery
Roland D-50	Linear Algorhythmic synthesiser keyboard.	Mike told H & SR magazine that he'd used "a string sound and a bell-like sound" from the D50. Also used in Islands, Earth Moving, Heaven's Open, Tubular Bells II, The Songs of Distant Earth
Microphones
Bruel & Kjaer 4040	Large diaphragm omnidirectional condenser microphone. Serial Number 001.	Also used in Heaven's Open, Voyager, Tubular Bells 2003
Bruel & Kjaer 4011	Small diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone.	Also used in Heaven's Open, Voyager, Tubular Bells 2003
Bruel & Kjaer 4006	Small diaphragm omnidirectional condenser microphone.	Also used in Heaven's Open, Voyager, Tubular Bells 2003
Studio effects and outboard
AMS Digital Delay
Brooke Siren DPR502 MIDI controlled noise gate
Neve 1073 Mic Preamps	Used on Amarok	Also used in Tubular Bells 2003
Quantec Room Simulator	Digital reverb unit, released in 1982.	Also used in Crises
Yamaha REV-7	Reverb unit.
Tape recorders
Sony PCM-3348	48 track digital multitrack tape recorder, recording to Ampex 467 1/2" oxide tape.	Also used in Heaven's Open, Tubular Bells II, The Songs of Distant Earth, Voyager, Tubular Bells III
Mixing desks
Harrison Series X	The world's first fully automated mixing desk. Where desks like Mike's Neve 8108 often had little more than automation/recall of channel levels and mutes, the Harrison was able to automate other parameters like panning and aux sends, making it far easier to recall a mix. It was released in 1985, and Mike claimed that his was the first in England.	Also used in Islands, Earth Moving, Heaven's Open, Tubular Bells II