Music of the Spheres (Mike Oldfield album)

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Music of the Spheres
File:MusicOfTheSperes.jpg
Studio album by Mike Oldfield
Released 14 March 2008 (2008-03-14)
Recorded Abbey Road Studios, Studio 1, June 2007
Genre Classical
Length 45:30
Label Universal Classics and Jazz
Mercury
Producer Mike Oldfield
Karl Jenkins
Mike Oldfield chronology
Light + Shade
(2005)Light + Shade2005		 Music of the Spheres
(2008)		 Man on the Rocks
(2014)Man on the Rocks2014
Singles from Music of the Spheres
  1. "Spheres"
    Released: 3 March 2008
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars[1]
IM 4/5 stars[2]

Music of the Spheres is an album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2008. The album, Oldfield's second album with Mercury Records and his first classical work, is based on the concept of a celestial Musica universalis.

The album features New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra (on "On My Heart") and Chinese pianist Lang Lang on six tracks.

Music of the Spheres was nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 2009.

History

In an interview on BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright show, broadcast 23 February 2006, Oldfield elaborated on his next project, saying he was working on a long instrumental – probably in three parts and without any drum loops. He also mentioned the possibility of a tour. In an interview for the March 2007 issue of Resolution Magazine, Oldfield added that it would be a classical album "going to be based around the festival of Hallowe’en, rather than the Hollywood horror film", in which he would only play "classical guitar and grand piano".[3] In an interview with This is London, Oldfield revealed the name of the new album as Music of the Spheres.[4]

Recording

Initially the album was written with electronic elements, like his last album, Light & Shade, but as the album developed it became an orchestral piece. The single "Spheres" is from the early stages of the album. Oldfield wrote much of the music in the music notation software Sibelius on an Apple Macintosh. Oldfield noted in the computing magazine MacFormat that creating the orchestral score for the album was time consuming, as the MIDI timing and velocities varied too much.[5]

On the ITV This Morning show, while promoting his autobiography, Changeling, Oldfield stated that he would be recording the album with Karl Jenkins and a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in early June 2007; nine months before the final release date. In an interview with British radio station Classic FM on 10 August 2007, Oldfield noted that Lang Lang had recorded his piano pieces over a webcam from Legacy Recording Studios, New York City using iChat and a Steinway piano.

Release

The album had been delayed a number of times, for various reasons. Originally, the release was aimed for Halloween;[citation needed] this was later pushed back to November 2007. In September 2007, Oldfield and Universal decided to delay the release of the album until January 2008, for personal reasons. However in November the release date was again put back until March 2008, around this time Oldfield also moved out of the United Kingdom to Spain. It was also going to be the first classical recording released on a USB flash drive, but ultimately it was only made available on CD and Online. On iTunes the album has bonus material and there was also a promotion at HMV.co.uk; a competition with a prize of the full annotated orchestral score used during the recordings. 200 randomly selected copies from Play.com were also signed by Mike Oldfield. A 2 CD Limited Edition version including both the studio and live recordings was released on 24 November 2008.

On 18 September 2007, Universal, the record label, held a presentation event, hosted by Yellow Lounge[6] at the Tape Club in Berlin; Oldfield was not scheduled to be present, but he appeared for 5 minutes to answer questions. There was also a promotional release, packaged in a tin. It includes a heat sensitive mug mat, shaped insert brochure, and an Electronic Press Kit disc featuring 2 video clips.

In November 2007 Universal included "On My Heart" (featuring Hayley Westenra) on their No 1 Classical Album 2008 compilation album. Westenra and Oldfield performed "On My Heart" live on the ITV daytime program The Alan Titchmarsh Show on 18 March 2008. During the week beginning the 10 March, Music of the Spheres was the featured album on the Classic FM radio station.[7]

Live at Bilbao

A second press event was scheduled at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao on 7 March 2008; as part of the launch event Oldfield performed music from Music of the Spheres live with the Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa, the Bilbao Choral Society and Hayley Westenra.[8] The concert was recorded and was originally released exclusively on Apple's iTunes on the same day as the album, with modified artwork, EPK videos and a PDF booklet. A 2 CD version of the album was released on 24 November 2008 in a card package.

According to an interview with BBC Wiltshire there are currently no plans to tour the album.[9]

Critical reception

Music of the Spheres was nominated for a Classical BRIT award, the NS&I Best Album of 2009, but failed to win.[10] It lost to Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' Spirit of the Glen–Journey.[11]

Chart performance

Music of the Spheres entered the UK Classical charts at number 1, as published by Music Week. It also entered the UK Albums Chart at number 9,[12] making it the most successful Oldfield album of the 2000s. Also, according to Music Week, as of October, Music of the Spheres is the 2nd best selling classical album of 2008.

Music of the Spheres is certificated Silver in UK.[13]

Charts

Chart (2008) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[14] 62
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[15] 96
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[16] 24
French Albums (SNEP)[17] 72
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[18] 14
Greek Album Chart[citation needed] 23
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[19] 13
Irish Album Chart[citation needed] 87
Irish Classical Album Chart[20] 2
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[21] 13
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[22] 7
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 31
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 37
UK Albums (OCC)[25] 9
UK Classical Chart[citation needed] 1
US Billboard Top Classical Crossover Albums[26] 10

Track listing

Standard studio version

All songs written and composed by Mike Oldfield. 

No. Title Part beginnings Length
1. "Harbinger"   Part One 4:08
2. "Animus"     3:09
3. "Silhouette"     3:19
4. "Shabda"     4:00
5. "The Tempest"     5:48
6. "Harbinger (reprise)"     1:30
7. "On My Heart" (Featuring Hayley Westenra)   2:27
8. "Aurora"   Part Two 3:42
9. "Prophecy"     2:54
10. "On My Heart (reprise)" (Featuring Hayley Westenra)   1:16
11. "Harmonia Mundi"     3:46
12. "The Other Side"     1:28
13. "Empyrean"     1:37
14. "Musica Universalis"     6:24
Total length:
 45:30

Live from Bilbao

All songs written and composed by Mike Oldfield. 

No. Title Length
1. "Harbinger"   4:09
2. "Animus"   3:05
3. "Silhouette"   3:19
4. "Shabda"   4:02
5. "The Tempest"   5:38
6. "Harbinger (reprise)"   1:27
7. "On My Heart"   2:26
8. "Aurora"   3:38
9. "Prophecy"   2:58
10. "On My Heart (reprise)"   1:08
11. "Harmonia Mundi"   3:10
12. "The Other Side"   1:27
13. "Empyrean"   1:57
14. "Musica Universalis"   6:13
Total length:
 44:36

iTunes-only version

The iTunes-only version includes Music of the Spheres, Music of the Spheres – Live from Bilbao and Interviews.

Interviews
No. Title Length
1. "Mike Oldfield interview"   3:03
2. "Karl Jenkins interview"   2:09
Total length:
 5:12

"Spheres"

"Spheres" is a digital-only single which was released on 3 March 2008. It is a piece from the conception stages of the album and contains parts of "Harbinger" and "Shabda". Although "Spheres" was the digital single released alongside the album, the vocal piece "On My Heart" was played in promotion of the album, such as on television show performances.

Track meanings

One of the album's tracks is entitled "Musica Universalis", which when translated into English is music of the spheres, an ancient philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies as a form of music; the concept of which the album is based upon. It is also, when literally translated, the name of Oldfield's current record label, Universal Music. This record company name trick is a repeat of a track title on his previous album Light & Shade: "Quicksilver", which is another name for the metal mercury; Light & Shade was released on Mercury Records, a sublabel of Universal Music.

Personnel

Orchestra

The Sinfonia Sfera Orchestra are:

Additional personnel

  • Miles Showell – Mastering at Metropolis Mastering, London
  • Simon Rhodes – Engineer
  • Rupert Christie – Assistant Producer
  • Richard King – Engineer

Uses of the piece

Australia's Seven Network television station used sections from the album ("Prophecy" and "On My Heart" (Reprise)) as backing music for a salute to Michael Phelps' 8 medals in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. They also played "Harbinger" behind the salute to a Japanese equestrian participant, who competed in the Olympic Games 44 years previously.

The album was used as background music in BBC Two's Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness programme in 2009.

Sections from Music of the Spheres have been used as backing music for Russell Ducker's Epimitheus, a 20-minute ballet piece. Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon premiered the work in 2009 in Spain, and they performed it in New York in March 2010.[27]

Release history

  • Germany – 14 March 2008
  • United Kingdom – 17 March 2008
  • United States – 25 March 2008
  • United Kingdom – 24 November 2008 (2 CD edition)

References

  1. ↑ Music of the Spheres review at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  16. ↑ "Danishcharts.com – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  17. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  18. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  19. ↑ "Top 40 album DVD és válogatáslemez-lista – 2008. 12. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  20. ↑ http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240005&arch=t&lyr=2008&year=2008&week=12
  21. ↑ "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLIS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  22. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  23. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  24. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Mike Oldfield – Music of the Spheres". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  25. ↑ March 2008 "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  26. ↑ Music of the Spheres at AllMusic
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]

External links

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