Mike Oldfield - The Millenium Bell (1999) +Cover Art

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The Millennium Bell is the 20th record album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1999 (see 1999 in music). The theme of the album is a reflection of different periods of human history. The album borrows its name from the dawning of the 3rd millennium and Oldfield's Tubular Bells series of albums. It was the main work performed at Oldfield's concert for Berlin's new year celebrations on 31 December 1999. Oldfield recorded the majority of the album at his home studio, Roughwood Studios, Berkshire, and then recorded the orchestrations in just one day at Abbey Road Studios, London with the London Session Orchestra. It was Oldfield's third album within one year, after Tubular Bells III in late 1998 and Guitars earlier in 1999. It was also the first Mike Oldfield album available on the MiniDisc format.

A free live performance of the latter half of the album plus some older tracks was given in Berlin, Germany on New Year's Eve 1999, with an estimated audience of 500,000 people. This concert was released on a DVD (and later CD) with the title The Art in Heaven Concert.

The Art in Heaven Concert (full title Mike Oldfield The Art in Heaven Concert Live in Berlin) is a Mike Oldfield concert video taken from 2000 New Year's night (31 December 1999) concert at the Victory Column in Berlin, Germany, which is currently available on both CD and DVD.

In a press conference in July 1999 in Langeland, Oldfield revealed that some ideas for the venue for the millennium night concert were Jubilee Gardens or possibly New Zealand. At the concert Oldfield performed pieces from his back catalogue, his then latest album The Millennium Bell and another piece titled "Art in Heaven". "Art in Heaven" begins with an excerpt from the first track of his The Songs of Distant Earth album ("In the Beginning"), and ends with "Ode to Joy" from Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The rest of the piece was specially composed for the event and was later turned into "Thou Art in Heaven" on his next album Tres Lunas.

The concert was a few months after the Live Then & Now 1999 tour and Oldfield's last performance until 2006.

The "Art in Heaven Live Concert" CD+DVD is still available on the UK market if you want to buy it. Saw it on Amazon.com in both the US and UK websites.