''Heaven's Open'' is the 14th

record album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century a ...

performed by

Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...

, released in 1991. It was his last album on

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

, and also the only album he released under the name Michael Oldfield, instead of Mike Oldfield. The producer of the album, Tom Newman's name is also spelled out in a similar manner, as Thom Newman. The album is essentially a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

, lyrics dealing with a forthcoming liberation from artist's recording contract.

History

By 1991 and the release of Heaven's Open, Oldfield was happy to leave

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

. The final goodbye to Virgin appears at the very end of "Music from the Balcony", where a quiet laughter and Oldfield's voice saying "Fuck off!" can be heard. ''Heaven's Open'' is Oldfield's only album where he performs all the lead vocals himself, due to his having come to terms with the sound of his own voice. After leaving Virgin, Oldfield released the anticipated '' Tubular Bells II'' in 1992 with

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Connections to other Oldfield albums

The album's cover is a reworked version of a photo by Trevor Key, which

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

initially wanted to use for the cover of ''

Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...

'', with the title ''Breakfast in Bed''. Oldfield hated the idea and rejected it. The original photo showed blood dripping from the egg, which was replaced by yolk for the cover. The working title for ''Heaven's Open'' was ''Man in the Rain''. The song "Heaven's Open" comes largely from an early version of "Man in the Rain". The "

Man in the Rain "Man in the Rain" is a pop rock song written and performed by English multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. It was included on the album ''Tubular Bells III'' and released as a single on 5 October 1998 by Warner Music. The vocals were performed by ...

" title would later be used by Oldfield as a single from the ''

Tubular Bells III ''Tubular Bells III'' is the eighteenth studio album by English guitarist, songwriter, and producer Mike Oldfield. It was released on 31 August 1998 by Warner Music UK as the third instalment in his ''Tubular Bells'' album series. After relocati ...

'' album. Stylistically, ''Heaven's Open'' returns to the format of Oldfield's commercially oriented records of the early to mid-1980s, and features a selection of accessible pop/rock songs, as well as a more progressive long-form piece. Unlike previous albums such as ''

Five Miles Out ''Five Miles Out'' is the seventh studio album by English recording artist Mike Oldfield, released on 19 March 1982 by Virgin Records in the UK. After touring in support of his previous album, '' QE2'' (1980), ended in mid-1981, Oldfield starte ...

'' and ''

Crises A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

'', the album's longer composition closes the album as opposed to opening it, as with Oldfield's album ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

''.

Singles

" Gimme Back" and the title track " Heaven's Open" were released as singles in 1991. Both were also released under the name Michael Oldfield.

Equipment

Musical equipment on the album includes

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

, C-Lab and

Fairlight Fairlight may refer to: In places: * Fairlight, East Sussex, a village east of Hastings in southern England, UK * Fairlight, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Fairlight, Saskatchewan, Canada In other uses: * Fairlight (company), ...

products. Also featured are

Roland D-50 The Roland D-50 is a synthesizer produced by Roland and released in April of 1987. Its features include digital sample-based subtractive synthesis, on-board effects, a joystick for data manipulation, and an analog synthesis-styled layout desig ...

, MKS-80 and D-550, an

Akai S900 The Akai S900 is a 12-bit sampler, with a variable sample rate from 7.5 kHz through to 40 kHz. It was common in recording studios until it was superseded two years later by the S1000. An expanded version, the Akai S950, was released in 1988 al ...

, S1000 and S1100, an EMU Proteus, a

Korg M1 The Korg M1 is a synthesizer and music workstation manufactured by Korg from 1988 to 1995. It is one of the bestselling synthesizers in history, selling an estimated 250,000 units. The M1 was widely used in popular music and stock music in the ...

Yamaha DX5 The Yamaha DX1 is the top-level member of Yamaha's prolific DX series of FM synthesizers. Background The DX1 has two sets of the synthesizer chipset used in the DX7, allowing either double the polyphony, split of two voices, or dual (layer ...

and a Steinberg 'Topaz'. A

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places Australia * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin Canada * Inukjuak, Quebec, or "Port H ...

series X mixing console, a

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

3348 digital tape machine and microphones made by Bruel & Kjaer were used in the creation of the album.

Track listing

All tracks written by Mike Oldfield.

Side one

# "Make Make" – 4:18 # "No Dream" – 6:02 # "Mr. Shame" – 4:22 # " Gimme Back" – 4:12 # " Heaven's Open" – 4:31

Side two

# "Music from the Balcony" – 19:44

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s, keyboards * Simon Phillips –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Dave Levy –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

Mickey Simmonds Mickey Simmonds (born 31 January 1959) is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish. He has also worked with Joan Armatrading, ...

–

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Andrew Longhurst – additional keyboards, sequencing and samples *

Courtney Pine Courtney Pine, (born 18 March 1964) is a British jazz musician, who was the principal founder in the 1980s of the black British band the Jazz Warriors. Although known primarily for his saxophone playing, Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

* The "Sassy Choir" ** Vicki St. James **

Sylvia Mason-James Sylvia Mason-James (born 8 December 1958) is a British singer who has worked extensively as a backing vocalist and solo artist. Early life and career Mason-James was born on 8 December 1958 in south London, United Kingdom to immigrants from J ...

** Dolly James **

Debi Doss Debi Doss is an American-born photographer and singer. Doss attended Webster University in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri in the United States, where she became interested in photography. Career Doss performed as a backing voc ...

** Shirlie Roden ** Valeria Etienne * Additional vocal harmonies **

Anita Hegerland Anita Hegerland (born 3 March 1961 in Sandefjord) is a Norwegian singer, most known for her childhood career in Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and subsequent vocal contributions to Mike Oldf ...

** Nikki "B" Bentley ** Tom Newman

References

External links

Mike Oldfield Discography - ''Heaven's Open''
at Tubular.net {{Authority control Mike Oldfield albums 1991 albums 1990s concept albums Virgin Records albums Albums produced by Tom Newman (musician)