Just Another Masterpiece: Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge at 50
Mike Oldfield in Echoes Interview
Hear Mike Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge tonight 8/29/2024, om Echoes
With his debut album, Tubular Bells in 1973, Mike Oldfield set an incredibly high bar. When he returned in 1974 with its follow-up, Hergest Ridge, many were disappointed. It followed much of the same musical formula as Tubular Bells, but if you were listening, it was a much more subtle and intricately woven album, less a pastiche of several different pieces and more a trek through several connected, evolving movements. The album takes its title from Hergest Ridge, a hill on the border of England and Wales. It’s where Oldfield composed the album on a TEAC 4-track tape machine before ultimately moving to the Manor Studios with producer Tom Newman for the final production. Hergest Ridge is kind of a between album, in that it has echoes of Tubular Bells and pre-echoes of Ommadawn. Clodagh Simmons, who sang the Ommadawn choir, is here as is Oldfield’s brother, flutist Terry Oldfield and his sister, singer Sally Oldfield. The late-classical composer, David Bedford, was Oldfield’s mentor on 
Tubular Bells from their days together in Kevin Ayers’ Whole World. He also arranged and conducted the Orchestral Tubular Bells album. On Hergest Ridge, he conducts and probably arranged the strings and choir. But as on Tubular Bells, Oldfield generates most of the music on multiple guitars and keyboards. Over all, the album has a much more acoustic pastoral feel as Oldfield tapped his Celtic folk roots while the album has a more acoustic, pastoral feel than Tubular Bells.
As the second of a brilliant four album run, Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn and Incantations, Ridge is the least highly regarded, but I think that’s a mistake. The album has its own charms and reflects Oldfield’s state of mind at the time, at the ripe young age of 21, seeking peace from the Tubular Bells craziness. Several years ago I wrote a list of Ten Essential Mike Oldfield Albums. I had Hergest Ridge at number 6 and said ” It suffers from following Tubular Bells, but taken on its own, Hergest Ridge, is just another masterwork from Oldfield.
Listening now, 50 years since I first heard it, I am struck by its warmth and fragility, the way each segment evolves into the next, melodies reemerging in different instrumental voices and settings. Hergest Ridge is a journey and remains one of not just Oldfield’s best albums, but one of the best period. It was released 50 years ago on August 30.
Ommadawn my favorite….