INCANTATIONS

I'm going to go out on a limb here with 5 stars.I think Incantations deserves a lot more praise than it gets.Oldfield wanted to make one last instrumental masterpeice before going for a more commercial style on later albums (at least until Amarok) and this is it.Part one is stunning and even better than the parts one or two of Ommadawn.The trumpets in paricular are sublime as they seem to answer each other.I never tire of hearing this. Part 2 leads into Oldfields take on the poem 'Hiawatha' sung in a narrative way by Maddy Prior.Haunting music.Part 3 is more flamboyant and takes us into the world of prog.The drums give this a heavy feeling which contrasts nicely with Parts 1 and 2.Part 4 is maybe the weakest part of the album but still stands up well nevertheless.Overall Mike Oldfield pulls off something special here.It's a bold statement by someone at the top of his game.