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Topic: I like it better than soundtracks< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Olivier Offline




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Posted: Jan. 24 2010, 16:05

I think I developped a listening habit, here is the simplified version:
- Music of the Spheres
hmm :( that's no Ommadawn, etc.
- Ommadawn, etc.
wow
hmm :cool: I should try to listen to other people too
- soundtracks
hmm :zzz: I should go back to MO, let's start with the latest work
- Music of the Spheres
wow :) much better than soundtracks
hmm :( that's no Ommadawn, etc.
ad infitinum

if I replace soundtracks with old classical music, I get stuck there for a long time
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SunkenForest Offline




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Posted: Jan. 24 2010, 17:53

Musica Universalis is pretty damn catchy...
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ex member 419 Offline




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Posted: Jan. 24 2010, 18:28

Hi Olivier and Sunken, Ommadawn and Music of the Spheres are two completely different soundtracks. Its fun to listen to Ommadawn and get lost in the music, its the same with MOTS. Just pick your favourite tracks! There are tracks on both albums I prefer, but not the whole albums themselves. Sunken Musica Universalis is IMO a brilliant piece of music. Glad Mike interpreted the theory and composed what the sound would be like if we could actually hear it. I reckon he nailed it. Deb
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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Jan. 25 2010, 09:50

Both bloody good albums.Both completely different.As the bloody annoying meerkat says "simples". :laugh:

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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Jan. 25 2010, 10:10

Or get a copy of The Killing Fields soundtrack.It's got Classical,it's Mike Oldfield and it's a soundtrack.Perfect solution.Unless you don't like it.It is a bit strange but good IMHO.

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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Jan. 25 2010, 13:28

I think what Olivier may be driving at to an extent,or these may be just some of my feelings on it at any rate.Is that Music Of The Spheres is kind of in the style of modern soundtrack music,but has the considered approach of keeping the listener in mind as such.It has it`s own entity and form,things that are often very difficult to achieve when you`re just putting together a soundtrack album.Killing Fields for me is a classic example of that,not helped by the fact that you`ve got the complete contrast of the fairlight music against the shorter orchestral pieces.Killing Fields may be a very good soundtrack but it does`nt really work as an album at all imo.Something I know Olivier himself mentioned recently is that often with soundtrack music you`ll get tracks that are 30 seconds long or something with titles like "Geoff puts on his coat and goes to the shops to buy a packet of washing powder" etc.. You know,and you end up with a 40 minute album with about 25 tracks on it that has a song from somebody completely different tagged on at the end.Or even worse they`ll stick one in the middle as well.

A lot of my favourite soundtrack albums or collections are very often re-recordings by the artists themselves.Vangelis has done this on a number of occasions where he has carefully considered both the album approach and the film itself I guess.Blade Runner and Antarctica(which I know Sir M recently mentioned) are prime examples.John Barry is another who has imo made better recordings and arrangements of certain pieces more geared for the listener at home if you like.Plus he has also took certain key themes and passages of music from a specific film etc and then arranged it into a suite etc.Personaly it`s something I would like to see more and more of myself,and it`s not as if it`s a new thing either.If anything you actualy tended to see more of it back in the 50`s and 60`s.When Lalo Schifrin released his Bullit soundtrack back in 1968 he took the key themes from the movie and gave them a more jazz/band orientated feel to them.He made a great album but also without loosing the essence and effect of the music that was used in the film itself I guess.And then best of all when he actualy re-recorded it again about ten years ago he even managed to improve on it further giving it more thrill and dynamics,without compromising the style and integrity of the original.A difficult thing to do but he pulled it off with almost consumate ease imo.

Music Of The Spheres compared to Ommadawn I don`t really want to get into too much,as like Caveman says they`re completely different works in many respects.That said I feel the same way as the original poster here.
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Olivier Offline




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Posted: Jan. 25 2010, 18:26

I think what I'm trying to say is that even if I consider MoTS not one of his greatest, I enjoy it much more if I was in a soundtrack period (Hans Zimmer, etc.) than in a Mike Oldfield period. It sounds simplistic, but that's really how it works for me. It's like, in the US, during a lunch, I was served coffee during appetizer, this didn't work out at all for me, I like it at the end, order matters.
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Jan. 26 2010, 16:13

I agree -  I'm sure I would have enjoyed instrumentals like MotS even more if it was a sountrack, the same goes for TMB and Voyager to name two. Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge, Incantations, Amarok, TBII  stand as albums in their own right IMO - and The Killing Fields and TB were already soundtracks.     

Mike's a natural film score composer and he could have gone down that route and been very successful at it I'm sure, (and that's where the money is these days) - but I guess you have to move fast and meet film deadlines. Thomas Newman is one of my favourite composers and he can churn out up to four film scores a year, over 50 in all since the mid 80s.


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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Jan. 29 2010, 09:48

Quote (wiga @ Jan. 26 2010, 16:13)
Killing Fields and TB were already soundtracks.     

TB wasn't a soundtrack.It was already made when Ahmet Ertegun (then head of Atlantic)agreed to let Friedkin use the tiny segmants that were used for The Exorcist.Mike was none too happy about it's use and it wasn't composed for the film.Unfortunately a lot of people in the USA were under the impression it was when it appeared in various releases as "Theme from the Exorcist".

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wiga Offline




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Posted: Jan. 29 2010, 19:02

Quote (The Caveman @ Jan. 29 2010, 09:48)
TB wasn't a soundtrack.

Right , it was used as a soundtrack later on.

I consider most of Mike's instrumentals as potential soundtracks.


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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Jan. 29 2010, 19:58

Quote (wiga @ Jan. 29 2010, 19:02)
I consider most of Mike's instrumentals as potential soundtracks.

Given some of the superb videos Mike himself has done (eg "Song of the Boatman"), it's hard to disagree with that. The Tr3s Lunas and Maestro music is arguably soundtrack music as well.
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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Feb. 26 2010, 04:56

It would appear that a large section of Music Of The Spheres has now become a "soundtrack" in a sense...This is probably something for the news thread,but I thought it might be quite pertinent to mention it here given some of the previous discussion...

Russell Ducker's Epimetheus...A 20 minute "neo classical" ballet piece set to Mike Oldfield`s Music Of The Spheres and performed by the Corella Ballet Company.It was premiered last year apparently at a festival in La Granja Spain.And is set to be performed March 17-20 at the City Center Theatre New York.

Details of the tour can be read here While the official site for Epimetheus (the name of one of Saturn`s moons) can be found here.

Quote
Mike Oldfield's music used for this choreography is particularly ground breaking because it is the first score he has produced without any electronic instruments;


:D Yeah true enough I guess,heh heh.I know as much about Ballet as I do about The Wilderness Years of The Chuckle Brothers.But I have to admit I`d really like to see this.
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ex member 419 Offline




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Posted: Feb. 26 2010, 05:54

Mike definitely has proved himself as a film score composer. MOTS really impressed me. He worked long and hard and it shows. Maybe he will spend some time working on film scores again, it challenges him and he enjoys this. I love MOTS and hope his career is not over just yet. Deb
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Holger Offline




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Posted: Mar. 27 2010, 20:23

Quote (wiga @ Jan. 26 2010, 22:13)
Thomas Newman is one of my favourite composers and he can churn out up to four film scores a year, over 50 in all since the mid 80s.

I haven't (consciously) heard any other score by that guy but the Wall-E score is easily my favourite soundtrack from recent years. There's some really original stuff going on there that I certainly haven't heard in Hollywood soundtracks before.

As for MotS - like Dirk Star said, the main difference between it and a film soundtrack is not so much style (in which it is really quite close) but intention. MotS was designed as an album from the start, it needed to keep the listener interested without any visual input. With film scores, the soundtrack album tends to be more of an afterthought. It can turn out great, but usually it only works for me if there is something more to it than the usual reiteration of Wagner, Holst, Grieg, and Orff clichés that most soundtracks are made up of. (For example, I liked the Matrix series soundtracks for their blend of orchestral, electronic, and "world" music, and more recently I've liked the above mentioned "Wall-E" for its diversity as well as portions of the "Planet Earth" documentary soundtrack and "G.I. Joe" which, like the Matrix soundtracks, combines orchestral and electronic elements, if not quite as succesfully.)

MotS doesn't really offer anything that couldn't potentially be in any Hollywood soundtrack, but it does offer something else - it is composed with the intention of creating a coherent piece of music, of working as an album, which is a luxury few, if any, film soundtrack can afford - I reckon there usually is neither time nor necessity for that.
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Drealm Offline




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Posted: Mar. 27 2010, 23:43

Quote (Holger @ Mar. 27 2010, 20:23)
Quote (wiga @ Jan. 26 2010, 22:13)
Thomas Newman is one of my favourite composers and he can churn out up to four film scores a year, over 50 in all since the mid 80s.


MotS was designed as an album from the start, it needed to keep the listener interested without any visual input. With film scores, the soundtrack album tends to be more of an afterthought.

...

(For example, I liked the Matrix series soundtracks for their blend of orchestral, electronic, and "world" music

There is the soundtrack from Thomas Newman - American Beauty that I can listen on it's own, without any visuals. So this soundtrack is enjoyable both alone or with visuals.

...

Me too, I liked the matrix soundtracks!
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