Tubular Bells II (Mike Oldfield album)

***Tubular Bells II*** is the 15th album by Mike Oldfield, released on August 31, 1992. The album – the first for his new record label, Warner Bros., following an acrimonious departure from Virgin after twenty years – was a sequel to Oldfield's 1973 Tubular Bells. Another sequel, Tubular Bells III, followed in 1998.

The album charted at number 1 in the UK as did its precursor. It is Oldfield's third number one album (after Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge).

Virgin Records had been pushing Oldfield to create a sequel to Tubular Bells for many years prior to his departure from the label, but Oldfield was hesitant to do so, although his penultimate album for the label, Amarok, was in several respects a conceptual sequel to his 1975 album Ommadawn.

For Tubular Bells II Oldfield enlisted the help of Tom Newman, who had helped produce the original, as well as established producer Trevor Horn (known for his work with The Buggles, Yes and Art of Noise). "Early Stages" which is an early version of what would become "Sentinel" was included as a B-side to the single version of "Sentinel". "Early Stages" has a somewhat darker mood and is from the pre-Trevor Horn development of the album, possibly showing the kind of influence that Horn had.

Tubular Bells II partly follows musical structures of the original Tubular Bells (1973). Themes of the original Bells are taken and then completely re-composed and played with mostly new instruments. The result is an album that has same kind of thematic variation but is still new musically. Some themes can be seen as variations of themes taken from the original Bells, while some other parts of Tubular Bells II do not have much common with the themes of the original album except their overall mood or feeling.

Listen to Tubular Bells II on Deezer.

#### Singles

***"Sentinel"*** was released on September 21, 1992. The single features a restructured, shorter version of "Sentinel", from the album. The piece itself is a re-imagining of the introduction theme from Oldfield's 1973 album Tubular Bells which was known for its use in The Exorcist film. It reached No 10 in the UK Singles Chart.

***"Tattoo"*** was released on December 7, 1992. There were two singles released for "Tattoo", one being called the Live at Edinburgh Castle EP.

One of the B-sides is Oldfield's instrumental rendition of the Christmas carol "Silent Night".

***"The Bell"*** was released as a single on April 5, 1993 by Warner Music. The single features a restructured, shorter version of the album version of the song.

"The Bell" is the finale of section one of Tubular Bells II and features a Master of Ceremonies, who introduces the instruments. The single has many versions of "The Bell", with different MCs. They include Billy Connolly, Carlos Finaly (in Spanish), Viv Stanshall, Otto (in English and German) and John Gordon Sinclair (live). The performer on the album was Alan Rickman, although credited as "A strolling player". This was due to the final voice not having been picked, when the artwork was produced. Some releases also include an instrumental version and remixes.

The instruments introduced are, in order: grand piano, reed & pipe organ, glockenspiel, bass guitar, vocal cords, "two slightly sampled electric guitars", "the Venetian effect", "digital sound processor" and tubular bells. "The Venetian Effect" refers to a characteristic mandolin technique, a type of tremolo known as bisbigliando, in which the effect of sustained notes is achieved by repetition.