1 	Blackbird 	04:37
2 	Tears Of An Angel 	05:38
3 	Resolution 	04:31
4 	Cook's Tune 	03:12
5 	Lakme (Fruity Loops) 	04:52
6 	Angelique 	04:39
7 	Pres De Toi 	03:55
8 	Nightshade (German) 	05:40
9 	Morgentau     Featuring [Vs.] – Schiller	04:12
10 	Angelique (Teknipolis Version) 	04:36

Compilation, Unofficial Release 

Born in 1953 in Reading, England, Mike OLDFIELD took up the guitar at seven and was composing instrumental pieces by age 10. With his sister Sally, he secured a record deal under the name SALLYANGIE and released the folkish album "Children of the Sun" in 1968. He then landed a position playing first bass and later guitar with WHOLE WORLD, led by ex-SOFT MACHINE co-founder Kevin Ayers. During the next few years he also served as a studio musician at Abbey Road, where he experimented with a wide range of instruments. He gradually built up a home studio and began working on a large-scale project, playing all of the parts himself. This was the prototype for "Tubular Bells", but OLDFIELD had no success generating label interest until he met with future Virgin Records founders Simon Draper and Richard Branson. They loved his ideas and gave him plenty of freedom to record in their state-of-the-art The Manor studio, and ended up releasing "Tubular Bells" on their brand new label when no other record company showed interest. The record shot to first place in the UK and elsewhere, attracting the attention of director William Friedkin, whose use of the intro segment in "The Exorcist" generated widespread recognition (OLDFIELD was not pleased by the association, however).

Retreating from his newfound celebrity, OLDFIELD recorded several more critically acclaimed albums, similar in scope and approach but constantly developing new instrumental and compositional skills. In 1979 his single "Guilty" showed that shorter vocal-based pieces and more recent music styles were beginning to creep into his work; he also returned to touring in 1979 after undergoing therapy to combat his reclusive, solitary tendencies. His work in the 80s included such far-ranging releases as "Crises" (including vocals by Jon ANDERSON), the soundtrack to the film "The Killing Fields", and a song called "Family Man" which became a hit for HALL & OATES. Known for consistently offering a visual spectacular in his live performances, he also developed an interest in video artistry, including a video album called "Wind Chimes". The 90s saw a return to longer symphonic-style works, including "Amarok" and "Tubular Bells II", for which he departed the increasingly commercial Virgin Records for the smaller WEA label. His "Songs of Distant Earth" album was the first CD ever to include CD-ROM content, as well as album notes by legendary sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. "Voyager" showed his appreciation for Celtic folk influences, and he plays tribute to his first musical love on "Guitars". The huge surge of appreciation for electronic music from the 90s dance community led to renewed interest in OLDFIELD's work, and the third instalment of the "Tubular Bells" series shows a definite influence from the house music culture that surrounds his new home in Ibiza.

Multi- instrumentalist, visual performance pioneer, symphonic rock master - all of these apply to the prodigious career of Mike OLDFIELD. ---: : : James Lee, USA, progarchives.com

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01. Tubular Bells, Part One - 25:29
02. Tubular Bells, Part Two - 23:19

- Mike Oldfield - acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, Farfisa, Hammond, and Lowrey organs,
 flageolet, fuzz guitars, glockenspiel, "honky tonk" piano (piano with detuned strings), mandolin, 
piano, "Piltdown Man", percussion, Spanish guitar, "taped motor drive amplifier organ chord", 
timpani, vocals and tubular bells, producer
+
- Steve Broughton - percussion
- Lindsay L. Cooper - string basses, oboe
- Girlie Chorus: Mundy Ellis, Sally Oldfield - vocals, choir
- Jon Field - flutes
- Vivian Stanshall - Master of Ceremonies, voice
- Nasal Choir
- Manor Choir (Simon Heyworth, Tom Newman, Mike Oldfield)

Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single, unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard, until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears. Throughout the album, the tempos range from soft to intense to utterly surprising, making for some excellent musical culminations. Mandolins and Spanish guitars are joined by grinding organs and keyboards, while oddball bells and cranking noises resound in the distance. In the middle of the album, guest Vivian Stanshall announces each instrument seconds before it is heard, ending with the ominous-sounding tubular bells, a truly powerful and dominating instrument. The most interesting and overwhelming aspect of this album is the fact that so many sounds are conjured up, yet none go unnoticed, allowing the listener a gradual submergence into each unique portion of the music. Tubular Bells is a divine excursion into the realm of new age music. --- Mike DeGagne, allmusic.com

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1 	The Song Of The Sun	4:33
2 	Celtic Rain 	4:41
3 	The Hero 	5:04
4 	Woman Of Ireland 	6:30
5 	The Voyager 	4:26
6 	She Moves Through The Fair 	4:07
7 	Dark Island 	5:44
8 	Wild Goose Flaps Its Wings 	5:05
9 	Flowers Of The Forest 	6:03
10 	Mont St Michel		12:19

Mike Oldfield – acoustic (nylon & steel), electric & Roland synth guitars, mandolin, grand piano, 
synths (Korg Trinity, Roland JD990 & JV1080 & XP50), programming
- Liam O' Flynn - Uillean pipes
- Davy Spillane - Uillean Pipes, low whistle
- Highland Pipers (Chris Apps, Roger Huth, Ian Macey, Bob MacIntosh)
- Matt Molloy - flutes, tin whistles
- John Myers - tin whistle, fiddle
- Sean Keane - fiddle
- Maire Breatnach - fiddle
- Pat Walsh - (vocals)
- London Symphony Orchestra
- London Voices - chorus vocals
- Noel Eccles - percussion
- Henry Jackman - programming 
Robin Smith - conductor

Mike Oldfield has always been a bit of a musical dilettante, and Voyager is no exception. If he didn't come by it honestly, one might almost suspect this album's Celtic influences derived from that music's being in vogue when this disc was recorded. There are certainly some enjoyable melodies herein, but nothing that rises above the ordinary. Oldfield's stinging guitar work is in evidence, and some synthesized bagpipes try to lend it an air of majesty, but ultimately this recording doesn't really voyage much of anywhere. --- Ross Boissoneau, AllMusic Review

Great change of direction for Voyager. The cheesy part about it though has to be the cover! Musically it is very pleasant and Oldield plays the Celtic theme very well. I think there are a few dull moments but the better songs like ' The song of the sun', 'Celtic rain', 'The Hero' and the superb' Wild Goose flaps it's wings' save the day.I still can't get into 'Mont. St Michel' though.Normally Oldfields longer tracks are the most accessible for me but this one eludes me. --- Chris S, progarchives.com

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01. Hergest Ridge, Part One - 21:23
02. Hergest Ridge, Part Two - 18:44

Personnel:
- Mike Oldfield – acoustic & electric & Spanish guitar, glockenspiel, sleigh bells, mandolin, nutcracker, timpani, gong, Farfisa, Lowrey & Gemini organs
- June Whiting, Lindsey Cooper - oboes
- Chili Charles – snare drum
- Ted Hobart – trumpet
- Sally Oldfield, Clodagh Simonds – voices
- Choir & Strings conducted by David Bedford

Released as another lengthy composition, Hergest Ridge was the album that followed Mike Oldfield's momentous Tubular Bells release, with many of the same instrumental elements and methods employed throughout its two sections. Because of the time of its release, Hergest Ridge was overshadowed by the effects of Oldfield's first album for Virgin, but even so he manages to invoke some interesting patches of music by using instruments like the glockenspiel, sleigh bells, the Lowrey organ, oboes, and a variety of mandolins and guitars to maintain the same type of diversity as Tubular Bells. Symphonic throughout most of the album's two parts, the highlight of Hergest Ridge is Oldfield's use of 90 multi-tracked guitars clustered together to create one of the most unique sounds ever to surface on his albums. Actually, Hergest Ridge entered the British charts in the number one spot in the fall of 1974, but Tubular Bells finally took its place only three weeks later. The album was highly regarded in the U.K. upon its release and it continued Oldfield's creative pace, proving that the genius put forth on his claim-to-fame album would indeed have some effect on works to come. ---Mike DeGagne, AllMusic Review

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01. Part One – 19:06
02. Part Two – 19:33
03. Part Three – 16:57
04. Part Four – 16:57

Personnel:
- Mike Oldfield – all instruments played, except:
- Mike Laird – trumpet
- Pierre Moerlen (Moerlin) – drums, vibraphones (04) 
- Maddy Prior – vocals
- Sally Oldfield – vocals
- The Queen's College Girls Choir – vocals
- David Bedford – strings and choir conductor
- Sebastian Bell – flutes
- Terry Oldfield – flutes
- Jabula – African drums

After a two-year pause following the release of Boxed, Mike Oldfield returned with a new epic project, this one spread over four vinyl sides and devoted to Native American themes rather than hewing once more toward the Celtic end of the spectrum. Included was Oldfield's musical adaptation of "The Song of Hiawatha," grandiose but empty; there was a nice sense of the dramatic when it came to dynamic range, but no sense of time -- the piece ran far too long as Oldfield searched for enough musical ideas to prop the whole thing up. After this, Oldfield avoided album-length concepts for quite some time. ---Steven McDonald, AllMusic Review

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1 	Ommadawn (Part One) 	19:05
2 	Ommadawn (Part Two) / On Horseback 	17:20
3 	In Dulce Jubilo	2:51
4 	First Excursion 	5:56
5 	Argiers 	3:57
6 	Portsmouth 	2:04

Personnel:
- Mike Oldfield – all guitars, banjo, bouzouki, bodhrán, electronic organs, 
   glockenspiel, harp, mandolin, percussion, piano, spinet, synthesizers and vocals
- Don Blakeson – trumpet
- The Hereford City Band – brass
- Jabula – African drums
- Pierre Moerlen – timpani
- Paddy Moloney – uilleann pipes
- William Murray – percussion
- Sally Oldfield – vocals
- Terry Oldfield – Panpipes
- Leslie Penning – recorders
- "The Penrhos Kids" (Abigail, Briony, Ivan and Jason Griffiths)
   – vocals on "On Horseback"
- Clodagh Simonds – vocals
- Bridget St.John – vocals
- David Strange – cello

Although it features the beautiful recorder of Leslie Penny and the Chieftains' Paddy Maloney playing the uilean pipe, Ommadawn didn't gain Mike Oldfield the success he was looking for. The album was released in the same year as the David Bedford-arranged Orchestral Tubular Bells and nine months after Oldfield picked up a Grammy award for the original Tubular Bells album. The most pleasing attribute of Ommadawn is its incorporation of both African and Irish music in its symphonic rock & roll mainframe. Boosted by a hearty amount of different horns, piano, cello, trumpet, and synthesizer, the album has its moments of rising action, but the whole of Ommadawn fails to keep its lovely segments around long enough, and there are some rather lengthy instances that include bland runs of unvaried music. Another plus is Oldfield's use of a choir, giving the album a soft, humanistic feel when contrasted against the keyboards or synthesizer. While it does include flashes of Mike Oldfield's brilliance, the entire album may seem a little anticlimactic when compared to some of his other releases. ---Mike DeGagne, AllMusic Review

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01. Taurus 1 (Mike Oldfield) – 10:16
02. Sheba (Oldfield) – 3:31
03. Conflict (Oldfield) – 2:48
04. Arrival (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus) – 2:45
05. Wonderful Land (Jerry Lordan) – 3:36
06. Mirage (Oldfield) – 4:39
07. QE2 (Oldfield, David Hentschel) – 7:38
08. Celt (Oldfield, Tim Cross) – 3:02
09. Molly (Oldfield) – 1:13

Personnel:
- Mike Oldfield – mandolin, bass guitar, synthesizers, banjo, Celtic harp, drum machine, timpani, electric guitars, bass pedals,
 piano, claptrap, vocoder, syndrums, chair, African drums, Spanish guitar, Aboriginal rhythm sticks, marimbas, vibraphone, vocals 
- Phil Collins – drums (01,02)
- Mike Frye – African drums (01,03,08), vocoder (06), drums (06), timpani (08), Hi-Hat (08)
- Maggie Reilly – vocals (01,02,03,04,08)
- David Hentschel – synthesizers (01,04), drums (04), vocals (04), horn arrangement (06), CS80 steel drums (07), synthesised French horn (07)
- Tim Cross – piano (03), synthesizers (03)
- Morris Pert – drums (03)
- Strings and choir arranged by David Bedford (04,05,07)
- Dick Studt – strings (04,05,07)
- Choir English Chorale – vocals (04)
- Guy Barker – trumpet (06)
- Raul D'Olivera – trumpet (06)
- Paul Nieman – trombone (06)
- Phil Todd – tenor saxophone (06)

WOW! The Mike Oldfield's music of the 80's has crystal clear sonorities and many pleasant modern keyboards textures; QE2 belongs to this music category. "Taurus 1" is very progressive, melodic, full of charming and childlike keyboards. Less than on the "Five miles out" album, there are some electronically modified voices a la Wendy Carlos (Clockwork Orange). Mike's omnipresent electric guitar solos are more melodic than ever: his sound is well crafted, and he does not really uses electric rhythmic guitar as on "Five miles out". Maggie Reilly's delightful and sublime voice occurs many times, especially on the soothing "Sheba". "Conflict" has very melodic textures. "Arrival" has an interesting traditional music style.

The other side contains some very good & original horns and strings arrangements. There are some delicate & sublime vibraphone and banjo/mandoline parts. The "QE2" track is the best one on this album: very enchanted, charming and childlike, it has memorable, melodic and pleasant moments, especially the brilliant combination of bagpipes-electric guitar! Again, on "Celt", Maggie Reilly's chant is very pleasant and addictive. The last track, the beautiful lullaby "Molly", full of tender and delicate guitars, was probably made for Mike's daughter. Finally, this is among the best records made by Mike Oldfield. ---greenback, progarchives.com

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