# Mike Oldfield 'soundalikes'



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I heard the new Mike Oldfield 'Return to Ommadawn' album yesterday and have to say I was rather underwhelmed. But it got me yearning for the old Oldfield sound and aside from the man himself, I listened to some Rob Reed (Sanctuary) and now I'm listening to some Colin Masson (Isle of Eight) as these are real close 'soundalikes'.
I wonder what other pieces there are out there that have the older Oldfield sound about them? Any offers?


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

René Dupéré was Cirque du Soleil's first composer. I haven't heard a lot of his work after the first two productions, but I think those are some of the best modern non-classical instrumental I've ever heard. It's much more continental or French-sounding than Oldfield, but he's the first one that comes to mine. A lot of great composers are a bit lost to anonymity unless you know modern film composers.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Gordon Giltrap - Visionary, Perilous Journey, and Fear of the Dark

Asturias - Circle in Forest (especially the 22 minute title track). All the rest of their albums also have Oldfield similarities, but this track is the most obvious.

Quite a bit of Anthony Philips' (original Genesis guitarist) solo material has some similarities.

Kitaro - Silk Road






Hartmut Zinn - Heiles Land






Colin Masson - Isle of Eight






Fuhrs and Frohling - Ammerland (the entire album)


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

As Oldfield 'soundalikes', I don't hear much similarity in René Dupéré, nor in Gordon Giltrap. I also don't hear much of that kind of sound in Anthony Phillips, though I do admire his work and consider 'The Geese and the Ghost' to be one of the finest works of it's type. Phillips's 'Private Parts & Pieces' series has some remarkable 12-string acoustic work which is a guitar we rarely hear in Oldfield.
Kitaro is an interesting composer - I have the dvd of that concert in the excerpt above and I get very frustrated at the poor mic work - you can barely hear either set of big drums during the solo at around the 4-minute mark. 
I've heard Hartmut Zinn's 'Heiles Land'; both that, the early Asturias and Colin Massons' 'Isle of Eight' are definite Oldfield 'soundalikes' as well as being interesting pieces in their own right. 
Furhs and Frohling are new to me so I shall have to explore their music to get a flavour and appreciation of their work. Thanks for the recommendations


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

You are probably right about Dupéré not sounding like Oldfield. The main work by him I know is We Re-invent the Circus. I didn't realize it was his third work. There is only one song online which may have been taken off. I like that entire work of his. I worked a little with the cirque du soliel when they came to Seattle and they were the most wonderful people back in 1990/91.

Wiki says:

"Dupéré is best known as the composer and arranger of music for contemporary circus productions by the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil. Among the Cirque du Soleil stage shows he has scored are: Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil (1984), La Magie Continue (1986), Le Cirque Réinventé (1987), Nouvelle Expérience (1990), Saltimbanco (1992), Mystère (1993), Alegría (1994), Kà (2004), and Zed (2009). According to press releases from Cirque du Soleil, 'René Dupéré played a key role in shaping the artistic universe of Cirque du Soleil during its first ten years.'"






Here is the piece I was looking for.





Found another one.

This music is played live and has differences with the CD which shows the creativity of the live band.


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