Mike Oldfield
Crises

The multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, with "Crises", produces his tenth work, which also represents the pinnacle of his long career. For the creation of "Crises", Mr. Oldfield collaborates with great artists and colleagues who perfectly integrate their voices into the mellifluous melodies composed by Oldfield.

The album opens with the lengthy (a full 20 minutes and 48 seconds!) title track "Crises", in which Oldfield uses various instruments including a mandolin, an accordion, and a "Quantec Room Simulator", the best sound sampler available at the time. Immediately after the song ends, there's a break between it and the famous pop hit "Moonlight Shadow", which literally catches us off guard compared to the album's opening premise. Maggie Reilly's sharp voice accompanies the fantastic duel of acoustic and electric guitars masterfully played by Mr. Oldfield himself. With "In High Places", Oldfield creates a new age atmosphere in which the legendary voice of Jon Anderson (historic vocalist of Yes) reigns. With his high-pitched, effeminate tones, he creates an imaginary bridge to "Foreign Affair" (a song that, incidentally, does not appear in the original CD tracklist), where Maggie Reily repeatedly sings the same verse while the music progresses with its slow but progressive intertwining. With "Taurus 3", we reach the third and final chapter of Oldfield's experimentation that began with "Taurus" in his "QE2" and continued with "Taurus 2" in "Five Miles Out". In "Taurus 3", a flamenco guitar loop is repeated, reminiscent in sound and technique of the legendary album "Friday Night In San Francisco" by Al di Meola, Paco de Lucia, and John McLaughlin.
Finally, to close, the most rock piece of the CD, titled "Shadow on the Wall", is masterfully sung by Robert Chapman, former leader of Family, who with his powerful and at the same time dark voice intones: "Treat me like an evil, just a shadow on the wall".

In a final judgment, this CD proves to be a small work of experimentation that touches on multiple genres, from pop to rock, from new age to flamenco, without ever boring us but leaving us speechless at the skill of this artist and composer who, as we recall, at the young age of only 19, composed and produced, with a symphonic orchestra, the soundtrack for the film "The Exorcist". The title of the soundtrack and his debut was "Tubular Bells", and it was named after the tubular and metallic instrument that we can hear more than once within the CD itself, whose sound is very similar to that of a bell.