Pretty good
http://www.innerviews.org/inner/oldfield.html
Like the process of digging through a jar of ideas jotted on rolling papers to come up with material.
Pretty good
http://www.innerviews.org/inner/oldfield.html
Like the process of digging through a jar of ideas jotted on rolling papers to come up with material.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
I really enjoyed that interview - many thanks for that.
Fascinating to read the part about Amorak, a great album that for me is right up there with TB, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn and Incantations.
Saving the pennies now for the reissues of Five Miles High and Crises.
Thanks again.
Interesting interview.
Thanks.
Crises and Five Miles are certainly different from TB, Ommadawn, and Amarok.
I especially love the mix of voices. Where else can you hear Jon Anderson and Roger Chapman on the same album?????
Oddly, though Anderson is my favorite vocalist ever, his piece on the album works least for me.
As for Hergest, I could never really get into it.
Beat me to posting about this myself.
It's an interview I tried to get for 25 years. Mike was very open to a vast swath of topics. It covers the reissues, his new rock album, the remix project, and reflections on Amarok, Heaven's Open, orchestral projects, as well as his creative process. There's a lot more too.
You can also read it on the iPad app here: http://www.innerviews.org/mobile.html
It's a very good interview, interesting, informative and funny. Congratulations.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
Without question the best MO interview I've read. Thank you very much!
Check out my concert videos on my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/broadaccent
The section about "Amarok" brought tears to my eyes. I'm not kidding!
Excellent!
Great to read a recent Mike Oldfield interview with very good questions/answers, thanks for posting!
Last edited by Ken Baird; 07-25-2013 at 07:34 AM.
An excellent read, as always. Oldfield's a pretty interesting guy.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Back when TB 2 was released, Mike appeared a record store in LA. He was signing things and I walked up and asked him to sign my copy of Amarok. When I handed it to him, I told him that I thought it was an absolute masterpiece. He seemed really happy about that and shook my hand, thanked me and told me that he was really pleased with album. In all of the hoopla around TB2 at the time, he seemed genuinely happy about my comment about Amarok. It truly is his most under appreciated work. As many times as I have heard it, I am always stunned by its brazen brilliance.
I'm going to have to give Amarok another series of listens. I always thought it a bit of a disjointed mishmash.
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
Well done Anil - this is another really articulate and probing interview. I'm a professional classical music journalist, but if I did prog rock stuff, I'd hope it would be something like what you do. I was really glad you focussed on Amarok so much - for me, it's Mike Oldfield's finest piece of work, although I wish it was indexed so I could sometimes pick out my favourite bits. But I suppose that was the point really - a single hour long madcap piece of music that takes you all over the map.
I also have to confess that I also have a soft spot for 'Earth Moving', the album that came out the year before 'Amarok'. Although it has some cheesy AOR that doesn't quite work when I listen to it now, the best songs on 'Earth Moving' ("Holy", "Far country", "Blue night" and maybe "Bridge to Paradise") and all of 'Amarok' show the two sides of Oldfield's styles at their best, imho. I also rather like 'Songs of Distant Earth', and I'd have been interested to see what Oldfield has to say about it now. I think it's one of his most interesting albums, and I really like the use of early music groups like The Tallis Scholars and The Hilliard Ensemble along with lots of lovely synth work (maybe Oldfield's best synth stuff?). But I expect I'm in the minority :-)
Keep up the good work!
David
The first time or two that I listened to Amarok, I thought Mike had released a mess of an album. In fact, on the first listen, I recall that my reaction was a true WTF?? That said, at some point, the album clicked with me and I absolutely love it now. It really is so complex and has such an FU kind of brilliance to it. I think Mike knew it was a piece of work that would confuse some fans. It is all over the place and quite honestly, is disjointed. That is part of its charm though.
You are not alone. I too like Earth Moving and love Songs of Distant Earth. I am astounded that it is already almost 20 years old. Songs of Distant Eath has some truly goose pimple inducing moments on it. Some of it sounds a bit dated now, but it doesnt lesson the enjoyment for me. it is an album of its time and a good one at that. Mike was very prolific in the 90s and I like a lot of the stuff he released in that era. Some of it has aged quite well. I am extremely happy to hear that Mike is releasing a new album. I had begun to think that he had retired and Music of the Spheres would be his last album. That album was well done, but I so love listening to Mike perform his own compositions that it never became a favorite of mine.
Last edited by Patelena396; 07-29-2013 at 01:50 AM.
Very nice interview. I'm anther Amarok fan, although I don't think that's saying much because it seems to be top five for most Oldfield fans. The news that there's intended to be a surround mix is wonderful, because that's one that will be watched very carefully by the audiophile community: it almost screams surround potential! The original album on CD only has a dynamic range of 11, yet it's one of the most "dynamic" albums I know and I really hope that comes through in the special edition.
Agreed, but for what it was going for and of its time, it has its high points as well. It is quite dated, but there are some good pop/rock songs on it. Personally, I think that Mike is quite understated as a pop rock songwriter. He has written and performed some excellent pop songs in my opinion. Much like his instrumental pieces, they are uniquely Mike in many cases.
That question was at the back of my mind as well. He didn't mention how many archive copies he made as he went along ... I imagine that's the sort of project you'd back up a lot! Also, you can get a pretty good artificial surround sound mix at home just by using the far left and far right data from the stereo mix, so I would think with studio gear that could be done a lot better. What we don't want is for him to start re-recording like he did with the 2003 Tubular Bells.
Still, maybe too early to be worrying about that yet ... I'm enthusiastically waiting for the Crises and Five Miles Out editions: both good albums in their own right.
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