Light & Shade

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Light & Shade
Studio album by Mike Oldfield
Released	September 26, 2005 (2005-09-26)
Recorded	2004-5, Buckinghamshire
Genre	Trance
Length	82:01
Label	Mercury
Producer	Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield chronology
Tubular Bells 2003 (2003) Light & Shade (2005) Music of the Spheres (2008)
Alternate Shade cover art

Light & Shade is a two-disc album written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. It is the first album to be released by Oldfield following his signing with Mercury Records. The album was released on 26 September 2005 (See 2005 in music). Some of the music on these CDs was originally released (with alternate mixes) on the soundtracks to his virtual reality games, Tr3s Lunas and Maestro.

[edit] Album analysis

The album offers two genres of music for two different moods, Oldfield created this division by creating two CDs of music. The first nine tracks are dubbed "Light" and feature brighter and quiet pieces; the second half of the album is the "Shade" portion and brings in a much darker feel.

On his official website Oldfield reported that besides the standard version of the album, a 5.1 surround mix of the album has been produced as well. However as of January 2008 only Tubular Bells 2003 had been released in full 5.1 surround. In addition, four tracks from Light & Shade were made available in the U-MYX format for fans to mix themselves.

Oldfield's attraction to vocal modification surfaced again, this time in the form of Vocaloid, a virtual vocal software package. One of the Vocaloid tracks, "Surfing" was meant to be the albums first single, according to zm.nu^[1].

The tracks "First Steps" and "Ringscape" were arranged by Robyn Smith. Christopher von Deylen makes a guest appearance on "Nightshade". Oldfield repaid the favor by playing guitar on "Morgentau", a track from the Tag Und Nacht album for von Deylen's band Schiller.

"Quicksilver" is another name for the metal Mercury, which is also the name of the record label which he is currently with. On Oldfield's next album, he repeats this trick, with a track title "Musica Universalis" which when translated is Universal Music^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Light

1. "Angelique" – 4:40
2. "Blackbird" – 4:39
3. "The Gate" – 4:14
4. "First Steps" – 10:02
5. "Closer" – 2:51
6. "Our Father" – 6:50
7. "Rocky" – 3:19
8. "Sunset" – 4:47
9. "Près de Toi" (Bonus track)

[edit] Shade

1. "Quicksilver" – 5:55
2. "Resolution" – 4:33
3. "Slipstream" – 5:15
4. "Surfing" – 5:36
5. "Tears of an Angel" – 5:38
6. "Romance" – 4:00
7. "Ringscape" – 4:22
8. "Nightshade" – 5:11
9. "Lakme (Fruity Loops)" (Bonus track)
10. "Cook's Tune" (Bonus track)

[edit] U-MYX CD-ROM tracks

• "Quicksilver" (U-MYX version)
• "Our Father" (U-MYX version)
• "Slipstream" (U-MYX version)
• "Angelique" (U-MYX version)

[edit] Equipment list

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mike Oldfield's track-by-track breakdown of his new album^{[dead link]}
• The official Light & Shade website^{[dead link]}
• Mike Oldfield Discography - Light + Shade at Tubular.net
• Logo rendered by Hans Claesson