If a film director makes a tasteful, respectful, pitch-perfect Hitchcock homage, everyone’s impressed. Music has different rules. As many will scorn Reed’s Mike Oldfield obsession as will praise it.
This immersive celebration of Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn is a labour of devotion and a display of dazzling proficiency. The Magenta/Kompendium man plays everything (on real, period-specific instruments) – yes, including glockenspiel and tubular bells – bar the voices, which come from Synergy Vocals (who’ve worked with Philip Glass and Steve Reich).
It’s a strange, melancholy creation, the melodies, moods and sequences building just as you’d want them to should Oldfield (in a parallel dimension) revisit this style himself. It shouldn’t be so affecting, but it is. If you like this sorta thing.
