Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn (1975) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2012] PS3 ISO + DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Ommadawn is the third record album by Mike Oldfield, originally released in 1975 on Virgin Records. As with Hergest Ridge and Tubular Bells, Ommadawn is another two-movement work. Oldfield makes economic use of a relatively small number of subjects throughout Ommadawn and develops them extensively, both with musical variation and varying the instruments used. Each of the two movements of Ommadawn utilise their own subjects without sharing them between the two movements. Oldfield sought out the ancient Celtic influence on English music and composed for traditional instruments such as uilleann pipes on the original LP version.

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.

Tracklist:

1. Ommadawn (Part One) - 19:18
2. Ommadawn (Part Two) / On Horseback - 17:18

DSD transferred from the original analogue master tapes by Richard Whittaker at FX Copyroom, England (2012).
Universal Japan # UIGY-9085


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Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 1,46 GB
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