If you like Mike Oldfield's Celtic influences, this is the album for you. It sounds like a new age soundtrack for every Hollywood depiction of Dear Old Ireland you've ever seen, sure and begorrah, shillelagh, aren't me mammy's eyes green, kiss the Blarney Stone, and that'll be eighteen dollars and change thank you very much.

The final long track, "Mont St Michel", brings in an orchestra and dilutes the taste of shamrocks to a more subtle and palatable level, but sounds suspiciously like an audition for soundtrack work. It's good, but not "must buy the CD" good.

Think of this album as Clannad or Enya with more musical inventiveness. For those who like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you like, and a great example thereof. But for Oldfield fans like me who don't really like that kind of thing, stay well away.

Even if it's kinda a good album of arrangements of well known celtic tunes ( WOMEN OF IRELAND , SHE MOVES THROUGH THE FAIR and THE SONG OF THE SUN are really good ) , the last track , MONT ST-MICHEL , which runs over 12 minutes is worth the price of this CD alone. This orchestral/choral track with solos for guitar , tin whistle and flutes is simply OUTSTANDING and looks like a symphonic poem , just like the orchestral version of TUBULAR BELLS was . The LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and the LONDON VOICES are remarkable in the playing .I was simply blown away by this track which comes as a true surprise after the new-age atmosphere that comes before , and it cuts completely the tone of the CD , ending it on an eloquent and bewitching as well as impressive note . One of OLDFIELD'S best works in recent years!!!. Try it , you won't regret it : the melodies are beautiful and strong , moving and powerful and the orchestral/choral arrangememnts are magnificent ( even though they don't come from OLDFIELD'S hand but ROBIN SMITH'S).A futur classic !!!! By the way , check out MIKE OLDFIELD'S private joke on WOMEN OF IRELAND as , in the middle of the track , he interpolates an excerpt of HAENDEL'S SARABANDE as a tribute to STANLEY KUBRICK and his film BARRY LINDON in which the director used WOMEN OF IRELAND and the SARABANDE as recurring themes . OLDFIELD'S arrangement is neat and smart as well as unexpected!!!

I am a big Oldfield fan (thanks to Stevie M.), especially of his long form works, Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, etc. I own 16 different Oldfield CD's, albums and cassettes (plus the box set Elements) so I believe I qualify as a fan.

I bought this CD the second I saw it on the shelf in 1996, listened to it twice through, once again on day 2 and put it away forever. Well, almost. I tried to listen to it again a couple of times since and have to say that I CANNOT.

It is a boring, unlistenable collection of warmed over new age pablum. When I saw Mike as a Middle Earth Elf Warrior on the cover I thought it must be a joke.

Sorry Mike. I love your music and have purchased almost all of it in one form or another but even Picasso had an off day or two.

This is a good all-instrumental album from a master instrumentalist. I have many M.O. albums and this one gets its fair share of play with the rest. It starts strong with a few very hummable traditional celtic tunes nicely rendered. It continues with some of the same and a few that are not so memorable but that don't make me want to turn on something else either.

The final song is quite long and I haven't decided if I like it yet, but with M.O. that doesn't mean it's bad. I have often come to love most the songs I took the longest to like, so after 10 listenings the jury is still out on that one.

Overall this is good Celtic and Celtic-influenced music that won't hurt your ears if you like that sort of thing. If it suffers from any real flaw it is a loss of momentum toward the end of the album, but none of it makes for bad listening. I like the Chieftains, the Afrocelts, Lorreena McKennitt and others and I regard this as a good fit with my tastes. Celtic done well just works for me, so this gets four stars.

If you like this album by Mike - try also beautiful magestic folk music music recorded by Orison, William Coulter, Shelley Phillips!!!

As to "Voyager" itself - I had heard this album for the first time in 1996 and I was dissapointed - after "The Songs of Distant Earth" you should wait for more... But artist has his own free will, so he could do whatever he wants.
If you like folky Mike Oldfield ("Ommadawn") - probably you would like this album. Here Mike plays Celtic music with London Symphony Orchestra, live highland bagpipes - so sound is quite live, spectacular and "big" - it`s not quite a meditative new age record.
If you like rocky Mike ("Shadow on the Wall") or electronic Mike ("The Songs of Distant Earth", "Light+Shade") - you would be disappointed - you have to be in the mood to listen to folk style music without any elements of rock dramatisism or electronic sound effects. The main effect here is Mike playing guitar. So when I`m in this mood - I like this CD. It is not the best work by Oldfield but it is interesting music with the distinctive sound of guitar by Mike.