Mike Oldfield - Incantations Full Album

This album was my very first encounter with Mike Oldfield's music. It was in December 1979 and I was eight then, coming home from school and my mother listened in the kitchen to a tape she got from a friend, playing Incantations, while she was baking cookies. I never forget how the music enchanted me, it perfectly seemed to fit to the snowflakes dancing outside when I looked out of the window and I listened to this tape every evening in my bed before I fell asleep...

I bought this album when it came out and absolutely taken with it. I was 22 then and I am 65 and still has the same affect on all these years later...

When I told my wife how much I liked this album she casually mentioned that she was part of the Queen's College Choir singing backing vocals at 9:42 onwards. Fame at last!

It's really a shame that none of Mike Oldfield's other work has gotten the same amount of attention as Tubular Bells. People are really missing out on a lot of great music here.

Mike Oldfield is never mentioned when it comes to famous guitarists. But he is awesome

I've been one of the youngest Mike Oldfield fan in this day and time. I started listening to Mike Oldfield back in 2007 when I was 14. I'm 29 now and still listen to his music. No one introduced me to it, I discovered it by my own means and became entranced by it. None of my peers knows who Mike Oldfield is, only some people 30-40 years older than me and even then, it's always "The guy that did the exorcist theme" and never "Mike Oldfield, the great composer". I've listened to every album, every song, even his newer stuff. He really is one of the most underrated composers of all time.

Incantations and Amarok are my all time favourites 😍

The fact that it all had to be played and recorded to tape, no pro tools and lap top in the good old days shows just how talented Mike is

This album is my personal favourite of his. I always felt that compositionally it is the album where Mike got everything together. He had matured into a formidable composer at this point. Wonderful.

Aaaaahhh yeeessss... the wonderful, magical worlds of Mike Oldfield's music....

Many years ago I put this album on the turntable for the first time, I think I was studying at the time, after about ten minutes I stopped what I was doing, amazed and gobsmacked at the incredible music coming from my speakers, it's a moment in time I'll never forget , I never had heard any thing so powerful, beautiful and awe inspiring as this, moving effortlessly from one passage to the next. I was an out and out Oldfield fan before but this composition moved me to another level, genius is not even close to describing this gentleman. Thanks to the likes of YouTube this will be heard and enjoyed for Eons,,

every time i listen to this i find smth new ... very underrated album, with some of the greatest hidden guitar solos he´s ever done.

one of my favorite albums ... a masterpiece

This is brilliant. So ahead of its time. You have to listen to all of it to really appreciate the whole thing. It is probably the best piece of music ever written.

Still absolutely Stunning. Born in 82 and grew up listening to this in the evenings when my parents would play it, I remember my dreams being really vivid after listening and can still remember parts of them listening today.

Mike Oldfield's great music has always been with me...the best. Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, Amarok. Always with me. What a genius. Pure music and emotion. I really really love his music soo much. And this is a very underrated masterpiece.

Mike Oldfield -- Incantations --From Wikipedia--Incantations is the fourth studio album by English musician, songwriter, and producer Mike Oldfield, released on 1 December 1978 by Virgin Records. Following the release of his previous album Ommadawn (1975), Oldfield moved into a new home in Bisley, Gloucestershire, where he set up a new recording studio. He started on a follow-up in 1977 which took form as a double album with one, side-long track on each side of the LP record. Oldfield wished to use real incantations in the music, but ended up using folklore as a loose running theme, such as Dianna the Huntress. Though primarily instrumental, lyrical sections are adapted from works by poets Henry Longfellow and Ben Jonson. Oldfield completed the self-awareness seminar Exegesis while recording Incantations. Incantations peaked at No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Oldfield's first album not to reach the UK top-five. It was supported by Oldfield's first concert tour as a solo artist, which featured all four parts of Incantations performed on stage with a band, orchestra, and choir. Parts of this tour were recorded and released as the 1979 live album Exposed. Incantations was reissued in 2000 and 2011; the latter release features a new digital remaster and additional content, including Oldfield's 1979 disco-influenced non-album single "Guilty" and footage from Exposed. Background and writing By the end of 1975 Oldfield had released his third album, Ommadawn (1975), which, like his previous two albums, Tubular Bells (1973) and Hergest Ridge (1974), had reached the top-five of the UK Albums Chart and helped to solidify Oldfield's popularity as a musician. The three albums were similar in structure, formed of a single composition split into two parts of the LP record. The release of Ommadawn marked the end of Oldfield's time at his home in Kington, Herefordshire, from which he moved to Througham Slad Manor near Bisley, Gloucestershire and set up a recording studio there. When work on Incantations began, Oldfield recalled that his initial goal was a record that contained "real incantations to exert a benign magical influence on anybody who heard it". He intended to base the music around real spells and chants, and asked the A&R department of his label, Virgin Records, to invite the head Druid to his home and discuss it further. The visit was unsuccessful; Oldfield's request for magic spells was turned down and he got the impression that the person was more interested in converting him to the movement. Keith Critchlow then introduced Oldfield to various "strange people" to gain inspiration, including poet Kathleen Raine, whose poems failed to conjure strong enough music, and a "shaman, gypsy-type woman" who remained silent all through her meeting with Oldfield. Then, a Virgin employee researched into British folklore and suggested Gog and Magog, from which Oldfield was able to find incantations that worked, specifically about Dianna the Huntress, which he then used as a running theme through the album. Oldfield had been listening to a greater amount of religious music than before, which he credited to keep him "calm and sane" as he described himself as "very disturbed" during this time. He also examined the styles of music of his previous albums; rock with a classical music format on his debut Tubular Bells, Celtic music on Hergest Ridge, and "more African" styles on Ommadawn. For Incantations, Oldfield wanted to present "some magical things", which influenced his decision to use a string section and flute. The album marked Oldfield's first attempt with a string section and he wrote the orchestral arrangements parts himself. He hired the group of around eighteen musicians to play in his studio. After some early cuts were produced, Oldfield started work on a more complicated sequence which featured various time signatures and every key on a music scale, which reminded him of the nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques". It developed into the double vibraphone section on "Incantations (Part Four)". This section was one that Oldfield described as "the closest I've ever come to self-expression" and deemed it, along with the electric guitar solo that follows it and a flute solo elsewhere, as the most important part of the album. In its final form, Incantations took shape as a double album and separated into four distinct parts, each one taking up one side of an LP record. Oldfield had felt guilty that he had not released new material in three years, which influenced him to make a double. Oldfield named composer and electronic musician Terry Riley as a big influence on Incantations, particularly his use of ostinato. At 72 minutes in total length, Incantations remained Oldfield's longest album until his 2005 double album, Light + Shade.- ---–––Incantations was released in the UK on 1 December 1978. It received a strong initial commercial response, reaching platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry two weeks prior after receiving over 300,000 preorders. It peaked at No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was promoted with the release of "Guilty", a non-album track that was released in April 1979 with the four-minute "Excerpt from Incantations" on the B-side. The single reached No. 22 on the UK Singles Chart.----––––––––––––-Track listing–––– All music by Mike Oldfield. Lyrics on "Incantations (Part Two)" by Longfellow and "Incantations (Part Four)" by Ben Jonson. Side one–– No. Title Length 1. "Incantations (Part One)" 19:08 Side two–– No. Title Length 1. "Incantations (Part Two)" 19:36 Side three–– No. Title Length 1. "Incantations (Part Three)" 16:58 Side four–– No. Title Length 1. "Incantations (Part Four)" 17:01 Personnel–––– Musicians–– Mike Oldfield – various instruments (except below) Mike Laird – trumpet Pierre Moerlen – drums, vibraphone on "Incantations (Part Four)" Benoît Moerlen – vibraphone on "Incantations (Part Four)" Maddy Prior – vocals on "The Song of Hiawatha" on "Incantations (Part Two)" and "Ode to Cynthia" on "Incantations (Part Four)" Sally Oldfield – vocals Queen's College Girls Choir – vocals Sebastian Bell – flute Terry Oldfield – flute Jabula – African drums Orchestra–– David Bedford – strings and choir conductor

I always play Mike Oldfield when I go trekking in the Brecons. His music seems to enhance the landscape

Sounds just as fresh and enchanting as when I first heard it 40 years ago. I love it just as much as I did then. Amazing that he created this marvel at such a young age.

The opening moments are utterly spellbinding.☺️