When Mike Oldfield asked his social media followers what kind of music they’d like from him, the overwhelming response was something in the vein of 1975’s Ommadawn. None of those fans could have suspected 2017’s Return To Ommadawn would be his final album – he retired in 2023. But he pulled all the stops out for that last addition to his catalogue, rebuilding instruments from four decades earlier, developing throwback teaser tones to drop into the new music; and ensuring the vinyl edition – the one that mattered to him most – offered something extra-special.
“When I first began to think of what I should do for my new album, I went on social media and asked the fans for their opinion,“ Mike Oldfield tells Prog. “So many of them seemed to want me to go back to the acoustic style of the first three albums, and of these it’s Ommadawnthat …