October 2005: I just visited tubular.net and it seems to be Light+Shade. A new album from MO. The next day I visited a shop and there it was at the bottom of  older MO stuff. The first impression left me a little lukewarm. It's soft and fluent and nice, kind of chill-out music, much like Tres Lunas. I'm missing more edge. But I will write more, when I have had time to make familiar with it. 2 CD.

September 2003: Mike Oldfield has released a new album Tubular Bells 2003, the mother of all tubular bells. It's actually the original TB replayed, remastered with better sound quality.

In the olden days Mike's albums didn't have a very good sound quality, indeed. The music was so strong, I didn't really mind the compromised sound. Now, with TB 2003, the sound is perfect, adequate to the current millennium. Mike has added smooth and delicate hues and you can find incredible richness of details thanks to the crystal-clear sound. Something is missing, however. The attacks during Introduction are not as sharp and hard as I expected. I would like even more demonic Basses. And the Caveman should be just a bit more ferocious.

I already had this feeling with TB3. Everything don't need to be smooth and fluent. Mike, have your teeth! Startle us!

It sounds like there are two Cavemans in TB 2003. A duet of Caveman and his golden sweetcaveheart. Mike has repeated this Piltdown man idea several times. TB2 has the funniest ever Altered State. And listen to the Wind 1 of Four Winds (Guitars). By the way, does anybody know, what does the Caveman say? What language does he speak, Klingon?

The sound balance in Ghost Bells is just perfect.  Basses reminds me of an ancient Finnish melody, it's not the same, just alike. As well, Peace, isn't that just like Edelweiss? In Finale (Part One) the bass goes forward like a jogging camel. If you hear some buzzing noise, it's one of the instruments rather than noise. The instruments are introduced as the tradition decrees. The announcer apparently has a British aristocratic pronunciation and a very special attitude towards the mandolin. I have always found the introduction as comical, that's good and that's how it shall be.  The instruments come in from the left, then glide slowly to the middle and right on their own places, except the tubular bells, which stands all the time in the middle. Unfortunately, however, we will not have very much the actual Sound of Tubular Bells.

Sailor's Hornpipe is as merry as ever.

The package contains two disks: CD+DVD. The DVD shows wonderful scenes, but it's only a few minutes. You buy this for the CD and music, the DVD is just a little extra. It looks like there are two other packages of 2003, one bigger, another smaller than mine. The product is copy protected, so, it does not strictly follow the CD standard. My player played it with no problems,but there is no guarantee every player can play it. Note that there is no efficient copy protection system. If the disk can be played, it can be copied. And if it can not be played, it will be a bit difficult to sell it. Copy protection systems only mess with some players and make money paying clients infuriated.

The painting above: School band of Tampereen Yhteiskoulu played TB in the spring of 2000 and again 2001. I shot some photos and later on painted this picture.

If you should decide a present to somebody, who already has everything, consider this instrument. People, who have everything, don't usually have a TB. Besides, a TB eats less than a white elephant.

This page set is about my paintings. Most of the text is in Finnish language, but ... just enjoy the pictures!
Risto Latva

Maggie

music by Risto Latva

start of paintings (in Finnish)

etusivu | luettelo | catalog

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