1001 Albums You Must Hear Before Something Bad Happens… # 994
April 9, 2008 by Robtch
Inspired by Steven Jay Schneider’s book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”
# 994
Artist: Mike Oldfield
Title: Incantations
Year: 1978
This is one of my favourite albums by one of my favourite artists. It is perhaps not one of his most well known work like Tubular Bells or the hit Moonlight Shadow. The music, arrangements and harmonies on this is album are wonderful. I have never heard music like this anywhere else. I absolutely love this album. There is no other way to put it. There is something about this music that goes straight to my heart.
I have to mention Pierre Moerlin’s contribution on this album. He plays some fantastic vibraphone on this album and it is hypnotic! Another interesting little fact is that Mike is joined by both his sister Sally on vocals and brother Terry on flutes.
It was released in 1978 as a double vinyl album. The music is a great mix of orchestral bits merged with rock, folk, choirs, African drums and wonderful vibraphone parts. The whole album is divided up in four parts and each part takes up one side of the LP.
Believe it or not but Mike Oldfield actually did a tour on this album which has been released on the also excellent album “Exposed”. The arrangements on that albums is a bit more rockier. They did the whole thing with a large orchestra, choir and band. I would have loved to attend one of those concerts.
If you decide to get this album on CD make sure you get a later edition, since the first pressings of the CD had a shorter version of Part 3 due to limitations on the earlier Cd’s storage capacity.
tubular.net
These albums are not presented in any particular order.
