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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

from: Virgin Records

December 01, 2003
I just had to give my opinion on this cd as I had ordered it on the recomendations of the other reviewers,
first of all if you are not a fan of david bedford then give this a miss as it sounds to me like it was cheaply put together, I know this was recorded in the 70's but there are better alternatives out there from that decade. robert powells voice as the narator gives it some credit but is drowned out too often by the music, I gave this cd a few plays just to see if it would grow on me but I have just taken it to the charity shop.

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Karl Jenkins: Stabat Mater

by: Karl Jenkins

March 10, 2008
I was slightly dragged to watch this in St David's Hall, Cardiff. I'm not the biggest fan of classical vocals! However I was very pleasantly surprise - the odd bit went on a little too long but for a first listening, pretty good. Bought the CD for my wife as a little present (as you do). This has really grown on me over time. It's a little like how I feel about the music of Pirates of the Caribbean, once I forget about the subject then I can just enjoy the music. A topic of Mary watching her son being murdered on a cross isn't exactly a barrel of laughs or in the words of my daughter it doesn't "float my boat". However this just has just some wonderful music and vocals. It's easy to listen to, I like driving with it and is my favourite piece of ... Read More:

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Chant

by: Cistercian Monks Of Stift Heiligenkreuz

May 19, 2008
This Cistercian abbey has a continous history since its foundation. My only criticsm is that according to the Rule Cistercians should chant in the Ambrosian mode - very slow & ponderous, and this CD is a little too fast. One of the plus points is that Cistercians do not have choir boys so the overall effect is a deeper more inspiring chant.

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Songs of Distant Earth

by: Mike Oldfield

October 09, 1995
i have been in love with this mans music since radio plays of tubular bells opened my ears to a vision that has reached many highs and a few lows. this album proves......GOD IS BACK BIG TIME.
I HAVENT ENJOYED ON FIRST PLAY AN ALBUM SO MUCH SINCE AS FAR BACK AS INCANTATIONS. EACH track weaves a musical spell that leaves you wanting more , getting better as you get further into the magical sound play that mike has created. if you thought the king was dead.....think again.

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Changeling: The Autobiography of Mike Oldfield

by: Mike Oldfield

May 01, 2008
i enjoyed this book a lot-polished it off in under a week(quick for me!).i had a lot of sympathy for mike's youngest years,very depressing to read in parts there,great fun reading about his mid teen musical exploits and admissions too.a a good chunk of the music bits did relate to tubular bells one but that's no surprise.i was expecting a lot more info on his future recordings and i was looking for more about his feelings in respect of mr branson-it was fairly positive on the whole-maybe that is because at the time of writing mike's head was at a good place?

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Tubular Bells Vol.1: Remastered

by: Mike Oldfield

May 29, 2000
Amazon, for some reason, has suggested to me that I might want to buy this.

Ah no.

If you are really desperate to hear tubular bells, can I suggest a good recording of Parsifal? It has the virtue of being, if only subjectively, shorter.

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Oxygene - 30th Anniversary + 2D DVD

by: Jean Michel Jarre

December 03, 2007
This is a compulsory buy for the JM Jarre fan or anybody who loves the Analogue/Moog synthesizer sound and for the Kids today who missed it all the first time round. Any self respecting electronica listener needs to see this if only for the History lesson.
I was around for the original Oxygene in 1977 and grew up on Walter/Wendy Carlos and Tomita who both made the Moog famous. Jarre kicked it all into the mainstream with lush spacy futuristic sounds at a time of Disco and Abba. Jarre's contempories Kraftwerk made a rather cold albiet excellent sound that was more experimental and precise.
It seems that since Bob Moog died, there has been a back lash from digital to analogue. Great - the lack of precision, the random events, the spontaneous feel is such a welcome breath of ... Read More:

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And Winter Came

by: Enya

November 10, 2008
I've been an Enya fan for twenty years and the thing that you can never mistake is the unique "Enya" sound and the wonderful calming effect it can give the listener. Her music has got me through some very stressful times in my life.

Although a winter and Christmas themed album I truly feel this can be played at any time of year and would still sound great. Having said that, this album really does capture the feeling of frost and snow-covered fir trees etc.

The tracks are varied with a nice selection of soft slow tracks along with the more up tempo ones. Of the latter ones, I challenge anyone not to have "Trains and Winter Rains" going around in their head for days! For me, one of the most beautiful tracks has to be "Dreams Are More Precious". I also highly rate "Last ... Read More:

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Durham Concerto

by: Kathryn Tickell, Jon Lord, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Mischa Damev

January 28, 2008
a sublime work backed by superb solo artists.three cheers to classic FM. for introducing it to me in full.

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Genesis - When in Rome - Live 2007 (3 DVDs)

by: Genesis

May 26, 2008
This will, most likely, be the last live performance of Genesis ever to be seen. In what concerns contents, a large part of it was a re-run of the Wembley performance, musicians line-up included. But the show itself was awsome. Some of the best visual effects (the 3rd disk shows how complex they were to achieve), fantastic stage, half a million people, state of the art camera shoots.
Music flowed from older to newer faultlessly, using similar bars and chords to make the transition (as in the 15+ minutes "In the cage" segment, ending with Duke's travels).
They knew it was their last live show and wanted to leave a lasting memory. They did.