Tr3s 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 is first release for MusicVR, a musical virtual reality project with simulator video game elements and music.[2] The idea developed to have the Tres Lunas MusicVR feature included as part of an album package, for which Oldfield wrote and recorded new music and signed with Warner Music Spain.[3] Tr3s Lunas saw Oldfield explore electronic and chill-out music.

Tr3s Lunas
Studio album by
Mike Oldfield
Released3 June 2002 (2002-06-03)
RecordedOldfield's home studio at Roughwood Croft, Chalfont St. Giles and Plan 1 Studios, Munich
GenreChill-out, new-age[1]
Length58:19
LabelWarner Music Spain
ProducerMike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield chronology
The Millennium Bell
(1999)		 Tr3s Lunas
(2002)		 Tubular Bells 2003
(2003)
Singles from Tres Lunas
  1. "To Be Free"
    Released: 20 May 2002
  2. "Thou Art in Heaven"
    Released: 26 August 2002
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Background

Title

When translated from the Spanish language to English, the album name Tres Lunas is Three Moons. This is reflected in the typeface on the album cover, with the letter 'e' being replaced with a numeric '3'. Oldfield stated that the title was inspired by an Italian restaurant in Ibiza (where he was living at the time) called Las Dos Lunas, which uses two mirrored C-shaped moons as a logo - as well as by the fact that the Tres Lunas game, which he created simultaneously with the music, features three moons within its landscape.

Recording

Oldfield's sister, Sally makes a speaking appearance on this album. The last previous Mike Oldfield album which she had appeared on was 1978's Incantations. The main vocalist for "To Be Free" is the Jazz singer Jude Sim. British-Asian vocalist called Amar, who first appeared on Tubular Bells III, also contributes vocals to the album. The album was recorded at Oldfield's Roughwood Studios, with additional parts recorded at Plan 1 Studios, Munich.

The saxophone sound is played with the use of a guitar synthesizer.[4]

The game

Tres Lunas was the vehicle for Oldfield's first publicly released MusicVR game. It was followed by Maestro. Some of the music from the Tres Lunas game eventually ended up on Oldfield's Light + Shade album.

Artwork

The cover is from an original idea by Hans Claesson of Kebawe.

Track listing
  1. "Misty" – 3:59
  2. "No Mans Land" – 6:08
  3. "Return to the Origin" – 4:38
  4. "Landfall" – 2:19
  5. "Viper" – 4:32
  6. "Turtle Island" – 3:40
  7. "To Be Free" – 4:21
  8. "Fire Fly" – 3:46
  9. "Tr3s Lunas" – 4:35
  10. "Daydream" – 2:15
  11. "Thou Art in Heaven" – 5:22
  12. "Sirius" – 5:47
  13. "No Mans Land" (Reprise) – 2:56
  14. "To Be Free" (Radio edit) (Bonus track) – 3:56

Personnel
  • Mike Oldfield
  • Sally Oldfield – Spoken voice
  • Jude Sim – Vocals on "To Be Free"
  • Amar – Vocals
  • Ben Darlow – Assistant engineer
  • Philip Lewis – Percussion programming (assistant at Plan 1)
  • Thomas Süssmair – Percussion programming (assistant at Plan 1)

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[5] Platinum 100,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. Anderson, Jason. Tr3s Lunas at AllMusic
  2. Wherry, Mark (November 2002). "Mike Oldfield: Tres Lunas". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  3. Sexton, Paul (6 July 2002). "The EQ Review: Mike Oldfield". Billboard. Vol. 114 no. 27. p. EQ-3. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  4. "Tres Lunas promotional video". June 2002. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  5. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (PDF) (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. p. 966. ISBN 84-8048-639-2. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
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