Ommadawn

Examples of world music before it was called world music keep turning up in the most unlikely places, and here’s another. Ommadawn was Oldfield’s third album, released in 1975 just two years after Tubular Bells, when he was still only 22. Like his most famous work, it’s a multi¬tracked suite, divided into two 20-minute parts to suit the medium of vinyl, but it’s a far more ambitious and expertly realised album than the cash-ringing clamour of those ruddy Bells. Beautifully paced and genuinely affecting, Ommadawn unfurls slowly – even majestically – to display a panoply of different and contrasting moods. Oldfield’s trademark guitar playing creates both sharp glissandos of notes and a shimmering, textural haze. But it’s his bold efforts to step outside the narrow conventions of 70s rock music that should make Ommadawn of interest to Songlines readers. Enhanced by the influence of folk styles from Eastern Europe, Irish music and the infiltration of West African rhythms, it’s one of the earliest examples of ethno-fusion. Sounding remarkably contemporary, it’s a precursor to the whole global New Age ambient trance school that came to prominence in the 90s with projects such as Deep Forest.

In particular, there are sparkling contributions from The Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney on uilleann pipes, the Gaelic vocalist Clodagh Simonds and the African drum troupe Jabula. This three-CD reissue is probably too much of a good thing, for we get the work in four different versions – the original 1975 mix, a previously unreleased demo from the time, and a brace of 2010 remixes by Oldfield, one in stereo and another in 5:1 DVD surround sound. But there’s no question it’s a record that was ahead of its time and which makes fascinating listening today.