Amarok – Mike Oldfield
Oldfield presents a miasma of sound harking back to the wild days of Ommadawn in this release from 1990.
I remember asking Steph Ormsby to nip to HMV for me to get this on cassette because I was stuck in school and I simply had to have it. Bless her, she did and I’m eternally grateful to her for doing so.
Without Amarok, the next 2 years would have been difficult expression wise. I could hear how Oldfield had vented frustrations against Branson and Virgin while at the same time marvelling at his musical prowess and wishing I was just as talented.
Of course, I’m not.
Presented as a single sixty minute track, something that was lost by listening to it on cassette, Amarok is a true experiment in your own understanding of musical form. I especially like how the ending just keeps building up and up. Theoretically, you could listen to it on loop for a whole day. I do, however, recommend that you listen to it when feeling a bit…eclectic.
These guys did a good job of performing it too:
Stegzy's Music Project 
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