''Light + Shade'' is the 23rd studio album by English musician

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

. It was the first album to be released by Oldfield following his signing with

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

. The album was released on 26 September 2005. Some of the music on these CDs was originally released, with alternate mixes, on the soundtracks to his virtual reality games, ''

Tres Lunas ''Tr3s Lunas'' is the 21st studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released in June 2002 by Warner Music Spain. After his previous album ''The Millennium Bell'' (1999), Oldfield started work on his first release for Music ...

'' and ''

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning " master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubi ...

''.

Background

The album offers two genres of music for two different moods, a division which Oldfield created by making 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. Many of the tracks on the album are remixed and/or extended versions of the music from the ''

'' video game. On his official website, Oldfield reported that besides the standard version of the album, a 5.1 surround

mix Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to: Persons & places * Mix (surname) ** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star * nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player * Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia * ...

of the album had been produced as well. However, as of 2020 it has not been released. Four tracks from ''Light + Shade'' were made available in the

U-MYX U-MYX was a music format launched in 2004 which allowed a user to arrange and create their own mix of songs by known music artists. The U-MYX Software is available on CDs (usually on the artist's single release as an Enhanced Section on the CD) a ...

format for fans to

themselves. Oldfield's attraction to vocal modification surfaced again, this time in the form of

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

, a virtual vocal software package. The voice of "Miriam" was used. The virtual voice "Miriam" is based on the voice of

Miriam Stockley Miriam Arlene Stockley (born 15 April 1962) is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music of her home country. Her distinctive ''vocalise'' style gained international acclaim when ...

, with whom Oldfield had previously worked. "Tears of an Angel" also featured Miriam singing alongside the

Cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

software. The tracks "First Steps" and "Ringscape" were arranged by

Robyn Smith Robyn Smith (born August 14, 1944) is an American retired jockey. Active from 1969 to 1980, Smith accumulated 247 wins in California and New York race tracks, and became the first female jockey to win a stakes race in 1973. Early life Smith ...

Christopher von Deylen Schiller () is a German electronic music band that rose to fame in 1998 and is named after the German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller. Originally, it was a duo consisting of Christopher von Deylen () and Mirko von Schlieffen. Around 2001 ...

makes a guest appearance on "Nightshade". Oldfield repaid the favour by playing guitar on "Morgentau", a track from the '' Tag und Nacht'' album for Deylen's band

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

. "Quicksilver" is an alternative name for the metal mercury, which is also the name of his then-current record label. On Oldfield's following album, ''

Music of the Spheres The ''musica universalis'' (literally universal music), also called music of the spheres or harmony of the spheres, is a philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies – the Sun, Moon, and planets – as a fo ...

'', he repeats this trick, with a track title "Musica Universalis" which when translated is

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

. The track "Blackbird" is named after one of Oldfield's motorbikes, a Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird. The track "Closer" is an instrumental reworking of the 19th century Christian hymn

Nearer, My God, to Thee "Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, which retells the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because ...

. The same tune is utilized again for the bonus track "Prés de Toi". The track "Romance" is a Techno version of a fragment of the 19th century classical guitar piece by the same name. The bonus track "Lakme (Fruity Loops)" is a techno rendering of the song

Flower Duet The "Flower Duet" is a duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano in the first act of Léo Delibes' opera ''Lakmé'', premiered in Paris in 1883. It is sung by the characters Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to ...

from the opera Lakme.

Track listing

''Light''

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

''Shade''

# "Quicksilver" – 5:55 # "Resolution" – 4:33 # "Slipstream" – 5:15 # " Surfing" – 5:36 # "Tears of an Angel" – 5:38 # " Romance" – 4:00 # "Ringscape" – 4:22 # "Nightshade" – 5:11 # "Lakme (

Fruity Loops FL Studio (previously known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. FL Studio features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. The program is availa ...

)" (Bonus track) # "Cook's Tune" (Bonus track)

U-MYX CD-ROM tracks

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

Equipment list

Guitars

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuous ...

(pink) 1963 *

Paul Reed Smith Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956) is an American luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars, a high-end guitar maker. Early life Smith graduated from Bowie High School in 1974. He also attended St. Mary's College of Maryland wher ...

Signature 1990 * Ramírez Classical 1974 *

Fender Precision Bass The Fender Precision Bass (often shortened to "P-Bass") is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instru ...

1964

Piano

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to ...

Grand 1928

Keyboards

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

Computers

Power Mac G5 The Power Mac G5 is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 2003 to 2006 as part of the Power Mac series. When introduced, it was the most powerful computer in Apple's Macintosh lineup, and ...

( Logic 7) * PC (

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

Pro with

FL Studio FL Studio (previously known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. FL Studio features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. The program is avail ...

)

Software plugins

* Glaresoft: iDrum * Linplug: Albino 2 *

Native Instruments Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are lo ...

: Absynth 3 / Altered States / FM7 / Morphology /

Reaktor Reaktor is a graphical modular software music studio developed by Native Instruments (NI). It allows musicians and sound specialists to design and build their own instruments, samplers, effects and sound design tools. It is supplied with many ...

/ Sounds of Polynesia / Wired * reFX:

Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives f ...

Spectrasonics Eric Persing is an american sound designer, professional synthesist and producer based in Los Angeles, California. He is best known as the Founder and Creative Director of the music software and virtual instrument company Spectrasonics. He has ...

: Atmosphere / Stylus RMX *

Steinberg Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH (trading as Steinberg) is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops music writing, recording, arranging, and editing software, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It als ...

: Groove Agent / Hypersonic / Kantos / Slayer / XPhrase * Virtual Vocalist Software:

Single

One of the Vocaloid tracks, "Surfing", was meant to be the album's first single, according to the Spanish website zm.nu. A promo single was released on 3 September 2005.

Use in other media

Pieces from ''Light and Shade'' have been used in media, such as the use of "Resolution" and "Slipstream" in the BBC's technology series '' Click''.

References

External links

Mike Oldfield Discography – ''Light + Shade''
at Tubular.net * Logo rendered b
Hans Claesson
{{Authority control Mike Oldfield albums 2005 albums Mercury Records albums