Most likely, if you know multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield it would be for his instro-prog masterpiece Tubular Bells (Incidentally his first album, and the first album on Virgin Records), which was used as the main theme of The Exorcist.

Next up for Oldfield came Hergest Ridge, a modest effort at the genre, expanding on a central theme in variation, but it didn’t have the melodic power that Tubular Bells carried off so well. Then from Oldfield came the imaginative, complex, rhythmic and original Ommadawn. Vocals were used to perfection on this album and many thought Oldfield could do no better.

He spent the next two years touring the shit out of those albums. Incredibly performing these 20+ minute songs live night after night. So by the time 1978 rolled around and Oldfield was getting ready to release his next album fans obviously wondered where it would go, what it would be.

Incantations was his answer. A different animal altogether. Not just stylistically, but it was a double LP in four parts (incidentally named “Incantation 1-4”). It was twice the length of any of his previous work, coming in at roughly 80 minutes. Oldfield had taken the time and given his audience something quite large to digest.

Critic and fan reviews run the gamut of “over-long”, “boring” and “only for the big fan”, to “hypnotic”, “genius” and “essential”. More directly, Incatations is Oldfields most controversial early work. Next would come the ‘80’s, and nobody really liked what he would get up to at that point. So of his early and most influential work, this is the one that people argue over the most.

If you’ve never heard a whole Oldfield album, let me start by describing what he does. Take Tubular Bells. If you’ve heard the theme to The Exorcist, then you know what a basic theme Mike works with will sound like, but if you haven’t heard the whole 50 minute version, then you don’t know the variations this theme goes through. From haunting theme to moog workout then full blown funk/rock out with satanic sounding vocals being shouted at you. By the end your being lulled to sleep by a quite organ accompanying a girls choir in hymn like reverie that inexplicably turns into a picolo lead ho-down at the very end. That’s what Oldfield does. He gives you a theme and variations that lead you on little journeys through emotion (Ommadawn), or literal space (Hergest Ridge), or genre (Tubular Bells).

Incantations might be said to be variations on the theme of strong women. “Incantation 1” is an ode to the Roman god Diana the goddess of the hunt. It starts out with womens voices creating an arpegiatted chord, rhythmic strings come in under a flute solo - and we’re off. The theme is as jaunty as a horse ride through the forest, it’s very “green” sounding, and even thought there are some synths used it sounds very natural. The stacatto rhythm at once will remind you of work of classical composers like Reich or Glass, one might be led to believe that Oldfield wishes to be taken seriously as someone of their ilk. But prog is Oldfield’s domain and this is where his cloth is cut. And what a tailor! As the variations start, there are lots of scale and chord progressions that eventually lead you back to the original theme, before trumpets come in to call and answer in baroque flourishes that fade into some exquisite african drumming by frequent Oldfield collaborators Jabula underscoring The Queens College Girls Choir chanting the name “Diana” with other latin phrases. It’s absolutely wonderful. And I’ll say it again, the rythmic phrasing is totally reminicent of some of the work by his classical contemporaries, it is hypnotic and moving.

“Incantation 2” starts with an arpeggiated synth underscoring a sweet flute melody. The whole thing sounds like water rippling in a stream, before it becomes still as a pool in the woods. Tom-toms start a heartbeat rhythm, the Diana theme the girls choir sings comes back in, and Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span fame starts singing the poem Hiawatha by Longfellow. It’s totally mesmerizing.

“Incantation 3” is a prog rock jam. Mike Oldfield is a talented guitarist and he works it like crazy on this track. The energy on this is great.

“Incantation 4” is where fans seem to part. Some seem to think it could have been left off the project all together, I count myself with the other camp in that a) you can’t have 3 parts on a double album, and b) it fittingly closes the circle that has been woven in the the first three themes. The original theme comes back in again, as does the “Diana” vocal theme and more of Hiawatha is sang by Ms. Prior. One fantastic aspect of 4 is the vibraphone and tuned percussion playing of Pierre Moerlin of Gong. His trance-like playing is incredible and worth listening to alone. I love this track. I don’t understand anyone thinking this kind of hypnotic playing is boring or unemotive. At it’s very core is a heartbeat rhythm which powers us along. It’s wonderful.

As a full symphony closes out the last “Incantation” I’m left a bit sorry it’s ended. At eighty minutes it’s not easy to find time to just breathe in music like this, so when it’s over you can’t help but feel elated, if not a little melancholy. When’s the next time you’ll get to sit and play a complete work alone, imagining in your head the pictures and scenes that Oldfield (and Longfellow, Jabula, Prior and Moerlin) have painted for you.

The naysayers are wrong. Incantations (all 4!) is a masterwork sitting nicely next to Tubular Bells and Ommadawn. A work of original hypnotic genius.

Mike Oldfield - Incantations 2