In an interview on
BBC Radio 2's
Steve Wright show, broadcast 23 February 2006, Oldfield elaborated on his next project, saying he was working on a long instrumental – probably in three parts and without any
drum loops. He also mentioned the possibility of a tour. In an interview for the March 2007 issue of
Resolution Magazine, Oldfield added that it would be a classical album "going to be based around the festival of
Hallowe’en, rather than the Hollywood
horror film", in which he would only play "classical guitar and grand piano". In an interview with
This is London, Oldfield revealed the name of the new album as
Music of the Spheres.
Recording Initially the album was written with electronic elements, like his last album,
Light & Shade, but as the album developed it became an orchestral piece. The single "
Spheres" is from the early stages of the album. Oldfield wrote much of the music in the music notation software
Sibelius on an
Apple Macintosh. Oldfield noted in the computing magazine
MacFormat that creating the orchestral score for the album was time-consuming, as the
MIDI timing and velocities varied too much. On the
ITV This Morning show, while promoting his autobiography,
Changeling, Oldfield stated that he would be recording the album with
Karl Jenkins and a full orchestra at
Abbey Road Studios in early June 2007; nine months before the final release date. In an interview with British radio station
Classic FM on 10 August 2007, Oldfield noted that Lang Lang had recorded his piano pieces over a
webcam from Legacy Recording Studios, New York City using
iChat and a
Steinway piano.
Release The album had been delayed a number of times, for various reasons. Originally, the release was aimed for Halloween; this was later pushed back to November 2007. In September 2007, Oldfield and Universal decided to delay the release of the album until January 2008, for personal reasons. However, in November the release date was again put back until March 2008, around this time Oldfield also moved out of the United Kingdom to Spain. It was also going to be the first classical recording released on a
USB flash drive, but ultimately it was only made available on CD and Online. On
iTunes the album has bonus material and there was also a promotion at
HMV.co.uk; a competition with a prize of the full annotated orchestral score used during the recordings. 200 randomly selected copies from
Play.com were also signed by Mike Oldfield. A 2 CD Limited Edition version including both the studio and live recordings was released on 24 November 2008. On 18 September 2007, Universal, the record label, held a presentation event, hosted by Yellow Lounge at the Tape Club in
Berlin; Oldfield was not scheduled to be present, but he appeared for 5 minutes to answer questions. There was also a promotional release, packaged in a tin. It includes a heat sensitive mug mat, shaped insert brochure, and an
Electronic Press Kit disc featuring 2 video clips. In November 2007 Universal included "On My Heart" (featuring Hayley Westenra) on their
No 1 Classical Album 2008 compilation album. Westenra and Oldfield performed "On My Heart" live on the ITV daytime program
The Alan Titchmarsh Show on 18 March 2008. During the week beginning the 10 March,
Music of the Spheres was the featured album on the
Classic FM radio station.
Live at Bilbao A second press event was scheduled at the
Guggenheim Museum in
Bilbao on 7 March 2008; as part of the launch event Oldfield performed music from
Music of the Spheres live with the Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa, the Bilbao Choral Society and
Hayley Westenra. The concert was recorded and was originally released exclusively on
Apple's iTunes on the same day as the album, with modified artwork, EPK videos and a
PDF booklet. A 2 CD version of the album was released on 24 November 2008 in a digipack. == Critical reception ==