Customer Reviews
Still standing, 30 years later - By: Chris J, 24 Mar 2008 
I remember listening to this when it first came out on vinyl (when I was barely even a teenager). Thirty years on, I've just discovered it again... & I'm amazed that it still sounds so fresh.
The music is in four parts, with each part lasting 20 minutes or so, mostly instrumental but with some "incantations" supplied by Maddy Prior & Sallly Oldfield. There's the usual Oldfield trademark mixture of guitar, synthesizer, & vibraphone(?)/bells, but this time it's played in a style I can only describe as "mesmerising, uplifting Pagan minimalism". As another reviewer has said, the sound is not so far from people like Steve Reich or Philip Glass... but where they look inward, this looks out -- it's thoroughly sunny & optimistic. This is the sort of music you might sit down & compose after watching the summer solstice at Stonehenge. Put this on, & alll's right with the world. For my money, definitely one of Mike Oldfield's best... & possibly the last decent record he made.
Simply the Best!! - By: A. Page, 19 Feb 2008 
For me "Incantations" stands head & shoulders above the rest of Oldfield's work.
Not only because of the sheer energy that runs through it (and the moments of outstanding nocturnal beauty), but the whole thing derives from the opening chord so, despite its length, it is highly concentrated.
I love many of his other albums but this is the very very best.
I Share All Of The Previous Observations Frustrations! - By: Mr. P. J. Sowerbutts, 12 Nov 2006 What a wonder it would be that if a musician as eminent as this would be drawn to opinions expressed here & thereby be reborn as an artist & reproduce the breath taking simplicity (ostinato) & yet genious of Incantaions again. Whatever is said about TB1 or Ommadawn this album is a true zenith but came out a year or two late & disappeared in the punk backlash. You MUST buy it & put it on your IPOD or car stereo - it will eat into your psyche & you will look for similar genious in Oldfield's other work - but alas, to date, you won't find it!
Good one Mike - By: , 24 Feb 2006 I reallly don't know how Mike Oldfield has lost it these days. He's just lost in the Techno world. But he's one of a kind as a musician. You see it in this album. I would say this was the very first of the Techno albums that now have lost their way. But he got this one right. Synths were used when they were needed.
If Mike reads this.
Please re-discover what you wanted from this album & re-produce it again.
It was a departure from Ommadawn. Not an earthy sound but somewhere in between the earthy sound & the electro sound. I like this album cuz he had got it right. It had atmosphere like Hergest ridge & Ommadawn. Tubular Bells is still the enigma album that glorifies musical instruments & sound. But this album was his best.
Mike Oldfield's best work - By: , 27 Apr 2005 Mike Oldfield's first four studio albums (Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn & Incantations) are simply stunning - his later oevure, nice though "Moonlight Shadow" may be, doesn't even come close to matching them. "Incantations" is the apex of this period of creativity and, for my money, his best album ever. On a grander scale than anything that went before in his canon, it's not an easy album, but the use, repetition & development of themes is on a scale not attempted by any "pop" or "rock" act before or since. It's more like Steve Reich, but infinitely better. The effort that must have gone into it is phenomenal - a far cry from these days when he programs a computer to write pale imitations of "Tubular Bells" every other year. Beginners - buy it, but listen to the other three first. It's a shame he apparently can't be bothered any more.
