Mirrors: The Bronze Anthology

This double-disc is a very solid collection of Sally Oldfield's recordings for the CBS subsidiary Bronze (don't laugh, Uriah Heep was on there too). Before her brief resurgence in the '90s, Oldfield's recordings were new age before there was such a term. She brought not only a songwriter's sense of elegance to tape, but also an instrumentalist's sense of silence and dynamic. Brother Mike Oldfield helped out on "Waterbearer," perhaps he best-known offering here, as well as on some of the subsequent tracks on later records. Oldfied was the real precursor to people like Enya and Loreena McKennitt, marrying a classicist's sense of arrangement and dynamic to a mystic's heart and a Celtic woman's abiding folk history, myth, and legend. These two discs are impeccably remastered and offer a wonderful introduction to a talent who, at least on this side of the pond, never got her proper due. [Sanctuary's 2007 reissue included two bonus tracks.]