Throughout II, he incorporates the multi-cultural influences that have cross-pollinated with new age, bringing in breathy ethnic flutes, Asian-inflected string sounds, and the whispered foreign words of "Sentinel." The famous ceiling of the album, where each instrument is introduced by a narrator, becomes another summit between old and new. The genre that the original Bells helped establish has come quite a ways in 20 years, and this fact isn't lost on Oldfield. The eight-minute opening track "Sentinel" plays it off of whining guitars and breathy female vocals. It's the piece's captivating main theme that again takes center stage here. Here, Oldfield repeats his multi-instrumental performance, playing guitar, banjo, organ, percussion, mandolin, and the titular tubular bells, although in a nod to modernism, the latter instruments often appear as samples through Oldfield's Kurzweil synth rig. Tubular Bells II is the update and/or sequel to Mike Oldfield's landmark 1973 new age recording Tubular Bells, which will resonate forever as the haunting theme to The Exorcist.
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June 2023
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