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Track List
01) Harbinger
02) Animus
03) Silhouette
04) Shabda
05) The Tempest
06) Harbinger (reprise)
07) On My Heart
08) Aurora
09) Prophecy
10) On My Heart (reprise)
11) Harmonia Mundi
12) The Other Side
13) Empyrean
14) Musica Universalis
01) Harbinger
02) Animus
03) Silhouette
04) Shabda
05) The Tempest
06) Harbinger (reprise)
07) On My Heart
08) Aurora
09) Prophecy
10) On My Heart (reprise)
11) Harmonia Mundi
12) The Other Side
13) Empyrean
14) Musica Universalis
4:08
3:09
3:19
3:56
5:48
1:30
2:26
3:42
2:54
1:16
3:46
1:28
1:37
6:24
Data Complete
80%
Total Rating
80%Total Rating
(1 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2008
Progressive Rock
Reflective
Rock/Pop
---
Medium
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Music of the Spheres is an album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2008. New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra is the featured vocalist on "On My Heart", and the album also features Chinese pianist Lang Lang on six tracks.
The album, Oldfield's second album with Mercury Records and his first classical work, is based on the concept of a celestial Musica universalis. A 2 CD limited edition version including both the studio and live recordings was released on 24 November 2008. It was nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 2009.
User Album Review
If you're going to prove your detractors wrong better to do it in grand style. In his autobiography (Changeling 2007) Mike Oldfield describes how, after being the butt of patronising attitudes whilst a member of Kevin Ayers' band, he wanted to come up with something that would make everyone sit up and take him seriously. Well, it doesn't get much grander than Tubular Bells, and more or less the whole wide world (give or take a few million sales here and there) sat up and took notice.
The phenomenal success didn't necessarily make him happy. Several times in his book he talks of being grateful for the abiding interest in Bells whilst simultaneously resentful about having everything he does compared to that first record. Despite such stylistically diverse pieces such Ommadawn, the catchy pop and rock of Moonlight Shadow or Family Man, or even the techno-tinged moods of 2005's Light And Shade, he's never quite escaped the gilded cage which his debut album has constructed around him.
It's no great surprise, therefore, that the dancing string motif of the opening track Harbinger is clearly drawn from the same gene pool as the first fruit of his loins. Similarly the stirring bass figures which stoke the engines of Musica Universalis bear a striking resemblance to those underpinning the Viv Stanshall-narrated coda of Tubular Bells.
Back then the guitar was pretty much the star. Here Oldfield's tunes have been threaded into Karl Jenkins' opulent orchestral embroidery. Not surprisingly Music Of The Spheres does sound an awful lot like an Adiemus album at times. Shabda in particular has those choral voices that Jenkins pushed to the fore though mercifully aren’t lumbered with that ridiculous invented 'ethnic' language which Jenkins devised.
Perhaps because Oldfield's presence is limited to a few cameo appearances the album lacks the personality and tension which he achieved with side one of Tubular Bells. And if that seems unfair then it's because so much of Music Of The Spheres sounds like an old arrival rather than a new departure.
External Album Reviews
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User Comments
Available in:
Music of the Spheres is an album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2008. New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra is the featured vocalist on "On My Heart", and the album also features Chinese pianist Lang Lang on six tracks.
The album, Oldfield's second album with Mercury Records and his first classical work, is based on the concept of a celestial Musica universalis. A 2 CD limited edition version including both the studio and live recordings was released on 24 November 2008. It was nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 2009.
User Album Review
If you're going to prove your detractors wrong better to do it in grand style. In his autobiography (Changeling 2007) Mike Oldfield describes how, after being the butt of patronising attitudes whilst a member of Kevin Ayers' band, he wanted to come up with something that would make everyone sit up and take him seriously. Well, it doesn't get much grander than Tubular Bells, and more or less the whole wide world (give or take a few million sales here and there) sat up and took notice.
The phenomenal success didn't necessarily make him happy. Several times in his book he talks of being grateful for the abiding interest in Bells whilst simultaneously resentful about having everything he does compared to that first record. Despite such stylistically diverse pieces such Ommadawn, the catchy pop and rock of Moonlight Shadow or Family Man, or even the techno-tinged moods of 2005's Light And Shade, he's never quite escaped the gilded cage which his debut album has constructed around him.
It's no great surprise, therefore, that the dancing string motif of the opening track Harbinger is clearly drawn from the same gene pool as the first fruit of his loins. Similarly the stirring bass figures which stoke the engines of Musica Universalis bear a striking resemblance to those underpinning the Viv Stanshall-narrated coda of Tubular Bells.
Back then the guitar was pretty much the star. Here Oldfield's tunes have been threaded into Karl Jenkins' opulent orchestral embroidery. Not surprisingly Music Of The Spheres does sound an awful lot like an Adiemus album at times. Shabda in particular has those choral voices that Jenkins pushed to the fore though mercifully aren’t lumbered with that ridiculous invented 'ethnic' language which Jenkins devised.
Perhaps because Oldfield's presence is limited to a few cameo appearances the album lacks the personality and tension which he achieved with side one of Tubular Bells. And if that seems unfair then it's because so much of Music Of The Spheres sounds like an old arrival rather than a new departure.
External Album Reviews
None...
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