Mike Oldfield possible by no means anticipated to be following up a massively profitable debut album. However that’s the scenario he discovered himself in after Tubular Bells turned a sensation. Quite than attempt to replicate that album’s sound, nonetheless, Oldfield went in one other route… And by some means got here out the opposite aspect with yet one more blockbuster. Certainly, within the NME of August 24, 1974, 4 days earlier than the LP’s launch, the paper’s deputy editor introduced in a characteristic headline: “Hergest Ridge Will Sell A Bomb.” The NME was not flawed.
The one actual similarity between Hergest Ridge and its predecessor is that each have been a single work that occupied the 2 sides of the unique long-playing report. Launched some 15 months after Tubular Bells, Hergest is far more “classical” in its musical building, and extra complicated.
Tubular Bells had thrust the then 20-year-old Oldfield into the highlight, and he was the primary to confess that it was not his pure habitat. He retreated to Herefordshire, and the depths of the English countryside, to jot down his second album. (Hergest Ridge is a hill close to Kington in that county, on the border between England and Wales, close to to the place Mike was residing.)
Having gotten the mandatory inspiration for the writing, he took his demo again to The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, the place he had recorded Tubular Bells, and started work on the album within the spring of 1974 with producer Tom Newman, with whom he had collaborated on his debut.
In each respect, Hergest Ridge is a much more subtle work than its predecessor. It’s redolent of the music of earlier twentieth century English composers, notably Ralph Vaughan Williams and Arnold Bax. Much like his debut, Oldfield multi-layered tons of devices for a sound that was completely different from the rest that was being recorded on the time.
Certain, Sure have been crusing the prog rock seas with comparable experimentation on their late 1973 launch, Tales from Topographic Oceans. However their keyboard-led layering was a collective affair, created because the group recorded collectively and bounced concepts and themes amongst themselves.
In distinction, Oldfield labored like a standard classical composer after which used the studio, together with its tools and the assistance of Newman, to create a piece of sustained thought and creativity. He was helped by his sister Sally on vocals, in addition to the London Sinfonietta Voices for choral results; there have been additionally another devices performed by studio musicians that included Mike’s brother Terry, himself a composer, on woodwinds.
Hergest Ridge entered the UK album chart at No.1 on September 14, 1974. Three weeks later, it was changed by Tubular Bells, which spent only a week on the high, its gross sales having been reignited by Oldfield’s follow-up.
In 1976, David Bedford, who performed the strings on the unique launch, recorded a purely orchestral model of Hergest Ridge. (Elements of this model have been used within the NASA and Tony Palmer documentary, The House Film.)
In 2010, Hergest Ridge was re-released by Mercury Information and it features a remix of the album and the unique vinyl mixture of the album. Oldfield was by no means totally pleased with the unique album cowl, and so he commissioned a brand new one. The deluxe version of the album additionally consists of Mike’s authentic demo, and it’s fascinating to listen to how his concepts developed, providing a singular perception into the inventive course of.
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