Elements: Mike Oldfield 1973-1991 [Box set] [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
UK reissue of 1993 Virgin America box-set that's out-of-print in the US. A beautifully packaged four CD set that essentially covers every aspect of Mike Oldfield's 20-year span as a multi-instrumentalist. The discs are housed in a sturdy book-style format (approx 5.5 x 10 inches) with an extensive booklet containing biographical information, as well as a breakdown of each of the instruments used throughout the 15 albums represented.

Elements: Mike Oldfield 1973-1991,Mike Oldfield,EMI Int'l,Box Sets (Audio Only),New Age / Meditation,Pop,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Progressive Electronic,Rock/Pop

Tracks:

Tubular Bells (Part One)
Tubular Bells (Part Two)
Hergest Ridge (Excerpt)
In Dulci Jubilo
Portsmouth
Vivadli Concerto In C

Tracks:

Ommadawn (Part One)
On Horseback
William Tell Overture
Argiers
First Excursion
Sailor's Hornpipe
Incantations (Part Two)
I'm Guilty
The Path
Blue Peter
Woodhenge
Punkadiddle
Polka Live

Tracks:

Platinum (3 & 4)
Arrival
Taurus
QE2
Wonderful Land
Sheba
Five Miles Out
Taurus II
Family Man
Mount Teidi
The Peak
Crises
Moonlight Shadow
Foreign Affair

Tracks:

Shadow On The Wall
Taurus III
Crime Of Passion
Jungle Gardenia
To France
Afghan
Tricks Of The Light (Instrumental)
Etude
Evacuation
Legend
Islands
The Wind Chimes (Part One)
Flying Start
Magic Touch
Earth Moving
Far Country
Holy
Amarok
Heaven's Open

Album Description

UK reissue of 1993 Virgin America box-set that's out-of-print in the US. A beautifully packaged four CD set that essentially covers every aspect of Mike Oldfield's 20-year span as a multi-instrumentalist. The discs are housed in a sturdy book-style format (approx 5.5 x 10 inches) with an extensive booklet containing biographical information, as well as a breakdown of each of the instruments used throughout the 15 albums represented.

Album Details

Digitally Remastered Edition of Oldfield's Monumental Four CD Box Set that Covers his Recorded Work from the Albums "Tubular Bells" to "Heaven's Open".the Packaging Has also Been Modified to a Long Box Format, Including the Original 64 Page Booklet with Essays and Rare Photos.

Customer Reviews:

The Best - and the Mediocre - of Mike Oldfield - ***1/2.......2007-01-06

Mike Oldfield peaked early, producing a trilogy of ambitious, symphonically-structured rock tone poems in the early- to mid-1970's. The first and most famous, "Tubular Bells", served as the theme for the film "The Exorcist". It was a groundbreaking album, with Oldfield playing most of the instruments himself, thereby proving himself a formidable studio wizard and instrumentalist (especially on guitar). The work was beautiful, minimalist, overblown, scary, funny, and mind-blowing. The sophomore effort, "Hergest Ridge", had its great moments, too, but Oldfield's masterpiece is "Ommadawn", the third of the series. Drawing on Celtic roots (and influencing a lot of subsequent music in the process), it's a majestic and gorgeous work that wraps with a charming vocal folk tune, "On Horseback". This box set contains all of "Tubular Bells", and the first part of each of the other pieces, as well as samples of Oldfield's output from 1973 through 1991. After the first three works, though, his work was variable. "Incantations" is an interesting and hypnotic piece, a chant of Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" with Steeleye Span's Maddy Prior providing the vocals. And some of the shorter instrumentals, like "Woodhenge", are intriguing. But subsequent works seem to degenerate into semi-progressive 1980's rock. There's very little on the last two discs that could be called "outstanding", and some of it is downright mediocre. It's all impeccably produced, but much of it, especially the vocal tracks, leave one with a "so-what" feeling - you feel like you've just listened to the Alan Parsons Project or Styx. There are still highlights, though, like the post-modern, dissonant departure of "Evacuation" from the "Killing Fields" soundtrack; and "Aramok", a composition that's a throwback to the earlier works. In summary, the "Elements" box set is a mixed bag that will give you an accurate overview of Oldfileld's work into the early 90's, but if you want to acquire the best of the best, get the first three or four albums individually, especially "Tubular Bells" and "Ommadawn".

Elements: The Best of Mike Oldfield 1973-1991

Average customer rating:

Una joya de la música New Age
I need more stars!
The largest Oldfield's collection avaible
Hmmmmm...
Outstanding Oldfield

Elements: The Best of Mike Oldfield 1973-1991
Mike Oldfield
Manufacturer: Virgin Records Us
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Electronic | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Box Sets | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B0000072NW
Release Date: 1993-11-16

Tracks:

Tubular Bells, Pt. 1
Tubular Bells, Pt. 2
Hergest Ridge [Excerpt]
In Dulci Jubilo
Portsmouth
Vivaldi Concerto in C

Tracks:

Ommadawn, Pt. 1
On Horseback
William Tell Overture
Argiers
First Excursion
Sailor's Hornpipe
Incantation, Pt. 1
I'm Guilty
Path
Blue Peter
Woodhenge
Punkadiddle [Live]
Polka [Live]

Tracks:

Platinum, Pt. 3 & 4
Arrival
Taurus
QE2
Wonderful Land
Sheba
Five Miles Out
Taurus II
Family Man
Mount Teidi
Peak
Crises
Moonlight Shadow
Foreign Affair

Tracks:

Shadow on the Wall
Taurus II
Crime of Passion
Jungle Gardenia
To France
Afghan
Tricks of the Light [Instrumental]
Etude
Evacuation
Legend
Islands
Wind Chimes, Pt. 1
Flying Start
Magic Touch
Earth Moving
Far Country
Holy
Amarok
Heaven's Open

Album Details

4CD Box Collection.

Customer Reviews:

Una joya de la música New Age.......2004-08-13

Definitivamente es un box set que todos los amantes de guitarras deberían tener. Desde clásicos como Tubular Bells, hasta lo producido por Oldfield en 1992 se ven recopilados en esta caja de 4 discos... Lo logré conseguir por suerte, ya que es muy escaso. Si tienes la oportunidad de comprarlo, no lo dudes. Satisfacción Garantizada!

I need more stars!.......2003-11-27

This hard-to-find box is something really special for all music aficionados, not only Oldfield's fans.
It covers a wide landscape of Mike's long and successful career. It is not a "Greatest Hits" collection, it is more of a set of different "pictures" of Mike's career until previous recording of Tubular Bells II. Of course, it includes the whole original Tubular Bells (the only complete record included).
It includes a nice quality booklet, with a short biography as well as lots of photos. The box itself is really nice.
Buy it!

The largest Oldfield's collection avaible.......2003-08-23

Definitly this 4 discs set is the Biggest Oldfield's Best of album.it contains most of his biggest hits,even whole "tubular bells".the addition of singles not avaible alesewhere like the disco dancefloor hit "guilty", lovely instrumentals "Path" or "Legend" (one of my favourites songs).
But hte compilation is missing many of his hits that were released only on Vinyls and were not officially released on Cd like the phenomenal "pictures in the dark","shine" (with jon anderson","Music from video wall","In the pool","bones"...there are many of songs that are wanting to be released and are hiding somwhere in Internet, but Virgin never really thought of Releasing the Complete b-sides and rare tracks set.That kind of compilation is a definitive wanted addition to Mike's Oldfield collection - so if you are an advanced Oldfield fan "Elements box set" is not good for you because propably you have already most of Rare songs from Internet.if you are a begginer Oldfield Fan, there never was a better way to get into the music of this great musican.and of ocurse whole Box set is looking lovely - big book inside with nice photos and biography,the package is beautifull too.

Hmmmmm..........2001-12-05

The idea of an Oldfield collection is silliness!!!!
If anyone is familiar with their instrumental albums, get them in order!
Mixing the instrumentals with the pop-songs is a terrible idea.
Bad selection, stay away from these kind of collections!
The only Oldfield collection I could imagine is a collection of their pop-songs, but there is no best of like that unfortunately.
This Oldfield compilation is better than other compilations of his, that's why it has 3 stars.

Outstanding Oldfield.......1999-11-19

This is the best collection of Mike available, and what you get for your money is certainly worth it. Including rare tracks and remixes, plus all the Hits and Lengthy excerpts of Classics like Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, Platinum, Crises, and even the brilliant Wind Chimes, plus an added incentive, the whole of Tubular Bells 1. The only down side is that this collection only covers up to Heavens Open, which means all Oldfield between Tubular Bells 2 and The forthcoming Millenium bell is nowhere to be seen. Heres hoping they will plug that gap for a future release. As for the competition, dont even consider The Complete Mike Oldfield, it does not come within 50 streets of this far superior release, even with the unbelievable running time, 4 Cds worth of Oldfield at his best, the excerpts are longer than on any other collection, and everything is more or less here in one form or another. This is Outstanding Oldfield with his Outstanding Best.

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