Mike Oldfield-Hergest Ridge (1974)

After the overwhelming success of "Tubular Bells", Mike Oldfield retired to the outskirts of London in a place called the hills of Hergest Ridge, where his home-studio was located in 1974, and recorded a new album which he would call the same name said hill.
In this new album Oldfield returns to record an entirely instrumental work of epic proportions, very similar to the structures and instrumentation of "Tubular Bells", giving the music a symphonic character, but more pastoral than its predecessor.
For this recording, Mike Oldfield once again uses instruments such as bells, oboes, glokenspiel, eardrums, Farfisa organs, Lowery, gongs, mandolins or acoustic and electric guitars, all this to weave an amazing sound mat that reaches its climax towards the middle of the second part , more specifically in the so-called "Storm on Mars", where he used about 90 guitars to achieve one of the most extraordinary of his entire career and in music in general.
"Hergest Ride" is a superb album that reaffirmed Oldfield's maturity and skills as a songwriter, but was nevertheless weighed down by the enormous success of its predecessor "Tubular Bells".

Mike Oldfield-Exposed (1979)

"Exposed" was for a long time the only live album released by Mike Oldfield, originally released in 1979, focused on the post-album tour "Incantations".
For this tour Mike Oldfield surrounded himself with a massive group of musicians trying to get a sound as close to that of the original album without resorting to prerecorded parts in the studio or other direct ones as it was becoming common in concerts of the time.
In this way, an impressive band was formed by Oldfield himself (bass, guitars), Nico Ramsden (bass, guitars), Phil Beer (guitar and vocals), Pierre Moerlen (drums, percussions), Mike Frye (percussion), Benoit Moerlen (percussion), David Bedford (percussion), Ringo McDonagh (bodhran), Pete Lemer (keyboards), Tim Cross (keyboards), Maddy Prior (voice) plus a string section of 18 musicians, a choir of 16 singers (regular collaborators with David Bedford), four trumpeters and two flute players.
The extensive suites of "Incantations Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4" sound superb with some variations that give it a fresher and more dynamic sound.
The groundbreaking almost complete version of the "Tubular Bells" is overwhelming with different arrangements compared to the original version, and to finish the rhythm "Guilty" where the whole band reaches the instrumental climax with an explosive and really awesome performance.

Mike Oldfield-Tubular Bells (1973)

This is one of the most important musical works of the 20th century and the impetuous debut of a very young Mike Oldfield.
Mike Oldfield was only 20 years old when he composed, arranged, performed and recorded this ambitious 49-minute play that would become the absolute pinnacle of the British musician.
This album was the first album released by the Virgin Records company, which until then was only a chain of record stores distributed throughout Great Britain.
"Tubular Bells" featured an Oldfield in charge of all string instruments and keyboards, with drummer Steve Broughton, flute player John Field, and vocalist Viv Stanshall in attendance.
For the recording of such a complicated musical work, more than a thousand overdubs were needed, (an overdub to the recorded).
Considered one of the peak works of symphonic rock and its end point and in a way the appearance of the new age.
Many of the musical parts of this gigantic work were used in the movie "The Exorcist" in 1973, which contributed significantly to the success of this fantastic album that has sold a whopping close to 20 million albums worldwide.

Mike Oldfield-Crises (1983)

Almost reaching the mid-eighties, Mike Oldfield puts the fifth gear of his extraordinary talent back to the service of the new sounds that prevailed at that time.
So in the same month that its millionaire and acclaimed "Tubular Bells" celebrated its tenth anniversary, "Crises" comes to light, an album that occupied part of the year 1982 and 1983 in the composition and subsequent recording, in the Oldfield is surrounded by a Pleiades of great musicians such as Simon Phillips, Phil Spalding, Jon Anderson of Yes, Roger Chapman of Family, Pierre Moerlen or Maggie Reilly among others.
The album was one of his biggest hits, and with which he installed his sophisticated rock pop music in the 80s and with only five songs, the album established itself among the top positions on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Crises", the instrumental song that opened the album, presents 21 minutes in which Mike plays with synthesizers, keyboards and mysterious atmospheres, without forgetting again great percussions and guitars, delighting us again with his peculiar progressive rock
Moments like "Crises, you can't get away", or "The watcher and the tower" are extraordinary and show that Oldfield still had a lot of talent left. Slightly inferior to the "Taurus II", from its predecessor "Five Miles Out", but absolutely masterful full of great music, great moments, beautiful melodies, enigmatic sounds ... Next, the great success of 83, "Moonlight Shadow", well-known song by Oldfield along with the introduction of "Tubular Bells": a conventional song, but pleasant, entertaining, and a true classic. Later, "In High Places", perhaps the best song on the album, an original theme, almost melancholic, playful and mysterious, a very space theme, where Jon Anderson's voice takes on special importance. "Foreign Affair" becomes the anecdotal theme for its rhythmic pace as well as great. "Taurus III", another instrumental theme with an almost Flemish influence is the least curious. Finally, "Shadow on the Wall", the hardest track on the album, became another contemporary classic of pop rock.

Mike Oldfield-The Songs of Distant Earth (1994)

After two albums that were harshly criticized, “Heaven's open” and Tubular Bells II ”, in 1994, Mike Oldfield, very fond of science fiction, decides, for his next project, to take as a base a novel by the famous writer Arthur C Clarke, "The songs of distant Earth." Mike Oldfield already included in his previous album "Tubular Bells II", a fragment entitled "Sentinel", a short novel by Clarke, which then served Kubrick as the basis for the realization of that masterpiece that was "2001 a space odyssey" , and that Clarke himself would later recompose that short story to write the novel of the same title.

Although this album mixes passages from the book, with others that are not, the truth is that the final set is quite homogeneous as a whole. Even most of the themes are linked without continuity solution, as if it were a large suite. 

As for the sound, Oldfield definitely opts for electronics, since the entire album is built with keyboards, samplers and computers, not forgetting, of course, the guitars, which there are here and very well executed. Ethereal keyboards and very suggestive melodies, dotted with those crystalline guitars, which give a very apparent final result. Many people criticized the abuse of electronics on the disk (there are no real batteries, as far as I know, everything is simulated), and according to them, it gave it a very artificial air and a “New Age” sound to the ensemble. I think the result was frankly good. Yes, it is a "commercial" album, so were "Crises", "Islands" or "Discovery", but they were not bad. For me, he uses this electronics very accurately in this album, but in my opinion in later works such as "Tr3s moons" or "Light and Shade", which are definitely albums "with sound" New age "and clearly inferior to" Songs of. . ”

Mike Oldfield-Five Miles Out (1982)

During the 1980s, Mike Oldfield evolved his avant-garde style while simultaneously experimenting with other sounds, sometimes with success and sometimes with failure. One such experiment was "Five Miles Out", released in 1982, which marked the beginning of a recurring trend that would be reflected in all his subsequent work throughout the decade. This trend led him to fuse progressive repertoire, typically occupying one side of the original album, with pop-rock tracks on the other. Here, the suite that fills an entire side is "Taurus II", undoubtedly one of Mike Oldfield's most epic works. Although completely different from his usual 1970s style, it becomes a progressive piece seasoned with powerful percussion, dynamic melodies, electrifying guitar solos, and a relentless rhythm. The second side showcases Oldfield's more mainstream side, beginning with the pulsating "Family Man", featuring the superb vocals of the incomparable Maggie Reilly. This is followed by the instrumental "Orabidoo", thirteen superb minutes showcasing Oldfield's guitar work. "Mount Teide", a tribute to the volcano on the Spanish island of Tenerife, is another outstanding instrumental track with restrained power and beautiful melodies. Finally, there's the heartbreaking title track, inspired by the plane crash that nearly claimed his life and the lives of his band another energetic composition with soaring momentum and haunting vocals.

Mike Oldfield-Platinum (1979)

Platinum released in 1979 would be the successor of Incantations and broke with the previous schemes in the works of Mike Oldfield, marked by long and instrumental suites to last until the end of the disc. From now on there will be a long piece directing the work, supplemented by shorter topics.
On this album, Oldfield and begins to experiment with electronic sounds and distortion effects in anticipation of the 80s, terribly marked by abuse of such techniques. However, the use of a healthy, just as mere accompaniments, while the music (the real one) is still that particular seal that Mike Oldfield was only able to print and even shows influenicas pop, funk and jazz in some parts of the disk.
The suite that opens the play is a piece of almost 20 minutes with a high progressive component divided into four parts (one of which is a piece adapted from Philip Glass North Star). The other songs too have their story: The song Woodhenge was replaced in the American version of the album (called Airborn) on the topic Guilty (single included in the previous live album Exposed), Sally, who appears on the back as the subject 3, does not actually appear on the disc, but is replaced by the subject Into Wonderland. Sally is a somewhat innocent ditty dedicated to Sally Cooper, Oldfield girlfriend back then, and only appears in the early editions of the LP (it was later taken by Richard Branson, and replaced by the above issue) is the particular insult Punkadiddle Mike Oldfield to Punk music, and when played live, the musicians were naked from the waist up, and I Got Rhythm is a version of a topic of George and Ira Gershwin.
Taken together, the whole album is very interesting, full of changes, melodic richness and as always the case of Oldfield, a quality hard to match.