Mike Oldfield

Since some time the late eighties, I have been a dedicated fan of Mike Oldfield, and since the early nineties, I have been one of the more eager collectors of his material. What really caught me in his music was the perfect mixture of the contemporary electrical guitar, which he controls better than most, and more traditional instruments, like acoustic guitars, recorder, oboe and so on, blended with the supervision of an ancient classical composer, and the sensitivity of a young man just learning to express the deepest emotions in his music.

During his first years as a solo artist, the seventies period, he was emotionally unbalanced, but aided by the music and the process of composing, he was able to start to fight his problems, even though the fame following his huge success in those years, were only adding to his problems.

His career falls into several periods, mostly as a result of what is happening in his life. In my opinion, the early years are the absolute best, somehow he manages to express his pain so well in his large instrumental works from that period.

His work and career, and the evolution in his music, which is actually anything else but boring, is very interesting to study. People often think of him as either the "guy who made Tubular Bells", or the "one with Moonlight Shadow", never realizing the great diversity in his works. One really has to listen to a great amount of his music, before one can form a real opinion about his music.

I have always some material for sale, if you are interested, take a look at my salelist.

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Last revised: 2002-11-12
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