Holger
Group: Members
Posts: 1506
Joined: Feb. 2003 |
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Posted: May 28 2003, 07:12 |
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Here's a translation of a somewhat bizarre but remarkably well-meaning review I found in the German book "Star Szene '77", which contains short articles about one thousand artists from all genres of music. The book also features articles about Kevin Ayers and even David Bedford, but they are not very interesting. This one, however, I found worth sharing.
Mike Oldfield made his first public appearance in July 1973 in the London "Queen Elizabeth Hall". 30 musicians participated in this concert, among them Mick Taylor, guitarist with the "Rolling Stones".
One of his best known records is called "Hergest Ridge", where Mike Oldfield plays all of the instruments himself, from guitar, mandolin, organ and oboe [sic] to the glockenspiel. The record was created through artful playback recordings and with complicated overdubs. Oldfield then added choirs and a string orchestra and also let his sister Sally "have her sing".
The music of "Hergest Ridge" pours boundlessly between cosmic sounds and herdsmen's songs, quietly and somewhat pensively, carried by melodically strongly pronounced guitar lines. Angels' choirs and trickling string dunes. With the scope of an easter liturgic mass and instrumental chants [sic] of the Tibet monks, harmonic, silky heaps of melody are washed up to the surface. Oldfield's inspiration hovers above like on bats' wings. Utopic, evocative and imaginative.
Each side of "Hergest Ridge" contains one number, one composition out of a thousand and one motifs, being amalgamated organically and without stylistic breaches. Mike Oldfield can do without glue. His elements grow into each other like branches in deep thicket and form bizarre ornaments. Even more well known became Oldfield's LP "Tubular Bells", which is considered one of rock music's essential albums.
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