Mike Oldfield - Hergest Ridge (1974) (vinyl Lp) - €10,00

posted by ad-vinylrecords

Hergest Ridge is the second studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 28 August 1974 by Virgin Records. 

The unexpected commercial and critical success of his debut album Tubular Bells (1973) affected Oldfield, who decided against touring and avoided the press with his newfound fame. 

Instead, he retreated to Hergest Ridge on the England–Wales border and wrote the follow-up, which he recorded in 1974 at The Manor in Oxfordshire, with Tom Newman returning as co-producer.
Similar to Oldfield's first, the album is a single composition split into two parts covering different moods and musical styles.
Released as another lengthy composition, Hergest Ridge was the album that followed Mike Oldfield's momentous Tubular Bells release, with many of the same instrumental elements and methods employed throughout its two sections.
Because of the time of its release, Hergest Ridge was overshadowed by the effects of Oldfield's first album for Virgin, but even so he manages to invoke some interesting patches of music by using instruments like the glockenspiel, sleigh bells, the Lowrey organ, oboes, and a variety of mandolins and guitars to maintain the same type of diversity as Tubular Bells.
Symphonic throughout most of the album's two parts, the highlight of Hergest Ridge is Oldfield's use of 90 multi-tracked guitars clustered together to create one of the most unique sounds ever to surface on his albums. 

Actually, Hergest Ridge entered the British charts in the number one spot in the fall of 1974, but Tubular Bells finally took its place only three weeks later.
The album was highly regarded in the U.K. upon its release and it continued Oldfield's creative pace, proving that the genius put forth on his claim-to-fame album would indeed have some effect on works to come.


Side one
1.  Hergest Ridge, Part 1 - 21:29

Side two
1.  Hergest Ridge, Part 2 - 18:45

Musicians

• Mike Oldfield – electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, glockenspiel, sleigh bells, mandolin, nutcracker, timpani, gong, Spanish guitar, Farfisa organ, Lowrey organ, GEM Gemini organ
• June Whiting – oboe
• Lindsay Cooper – oboe
• Ted Hobart – trumpet
• Terry Oldfield – flute
• Chilli Charles – snare drum
• Clodagh Simonds – vocals
• Sally Oldfield – vocals
• David Bedford – choir and strings conductor

Production

• Mike Oldfield – production, engineering
• Tom Newman – production and engineering assistant
• Trevor Key – album cover
• Bootleg – Irish wolfhound on the album cover

Notes

Release:  1974
Format:  LP, Vinyl
Genre:  Progressive Rock
Label:  Virgin Records
Catalog#  VR 13109

Vinyl:  VG
Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00