Mike Oldfield - "Ommadawn" (1975)

Mike Oldfield is - apart from an Englishman, 59 years old, father of seven children, a motorcycle fanatic, a pilot - also a multi-instrumentalist. The guitar is considered to be his main instrument but he also plays the bass, piano / keyboards, percussion, banjo, glockenspiel, mandolin, etc.
Ommadawn was Oldfields third album and is largely instrumental.

I purchased this album somewhere during high school, probably towards the very end of it. I don't remember how I discovered him, but I suspect it was my older brother who told me of him. Tubular Bells is problably the record most people associate with Oldfield, but in my world Ommadawn is equivalent, if not better. On the other hand, that doesn't mean I think this is an extremely good album, although I like Oldfield, there is sometimes a tendency that he can get a little boring. So this is a an OK album, with some really nice parts and others quite dull.

There is a strong Celtic influence on the record in terms of the (wind)instruments used, eg uillean pipes. But there's also a lot of African influences which made this album one of the first so-called world music-albums which sold well. The fusion of Irish, Celtic and African music sounds very interesting, but I must shamefacedly admit that I have missed the African influences completely. According to what I've read online, it's mainly the use of the drummers from Jabula, a group of exiled musicians from South Africa who lived in England, which creates this African ingredient. I was very surprised when I read this, partly because I associate African music (yes, I know it's not possible to generalize in this way) with a completely different sound, partly because I barely hear any percussion instruments on the album. But I understand it's my own ignorance that now becomes clear for everyone to see.

Side A is made up of one song, the B-side is the continuation of this song and ends with the shorter song "On Horseback" which is a more traditional song with verses and choruses. Generally speaking, the album consists of a number of longer, somewhat boring, parts which leads to parts that are truly amazing. More of the amazing parts, less of the longer boring parts is my firm recommendation to Mr. Oldfield. The weak parts of the album are relatively characterless and formless, the lack of percussion that frames the soundscape might be a cause, but the music is often just a repetition of the same (boring) line.
The strong parts of the album weighs heavier, though, so the whole picture becomes positive. Indeed, the good parts actually belong to my absolute favorites when it comes to instrumental music. So unfortunately, when Ommadawn is played, I just wait for the music to reach my favorite parts, then I start to listen.

There is no doubt that Oldfield is good with the guitar, which he proves a number of times on the album. He compromises in the eternal battle between the Fender and Gibson supporters by playing both - a Gibson SG Junior and a Fender Telecaster. The same goes for the basses he uses -  a Fender Precision and Gibson EB-3. It's actually a pretty good picture of the whole album, a compromise between fantastic and boring, clear and unclear, commersial and difficult, folk and pop, and quiet and noisy.

Ommadawn is mostly instrumental, but here and there on the record's two main compositions, you'll get some song in the shape of a female choir which lies in the background. One of the voices belongs to Oldfields sister Sallly.

Concerning the album's title, Oldfield thought the sound was more important than great lyrics, so he asked Clodagh Simonds to write down the first words she thought of, which was, "Daddy's in bed. The cat's drinking milk, I'm an idiot. And I'm laughing". She asked a friend to translate this to Irish and the word "idiot" was amadán which Oldfield Anglicised to Ommadawn.

A somewhat older Mike Oldfield

If you like instrumental music of the somewhat quieter type Ommadawn can be recommended, but I suspect some may get a bit bored listening to it. My wife didn't understand the album at all, the louder parts she thought was noisy and the quieter ones she thought was a bit boring. On the whole, she thought the music was kind of strange and weird. But if this says more about my wife than the album, I leave unsaid.

The ones interested can take part of the whole album on the youtube link below

Tracklist

Side A
1. Ommadawn, Part One 19:23

Side B
1. Ommadawn, Part Two 13:54
2. On Horseback 3:23