Oceans of Sounds: the Virgin Ambient Series (1993-1997)


This summer, I'm publishing a series on the Virgin Records Ambient Series: a sub-label of Virgin Records which released 24 CDs between 1993 and 1997. Of those 24 CDs, 15 were compilations. The compilations followed the same format: someone (Kevin Martin and David Toop are the most frequently thought of with regard to this series) compiles and mixes two CDs worth of tracks based around a genre or, as with the case of Toop's Ocean of Sound CDs, a more abstract concept. There have been some good blog posts through the years that have looked at this stuff (I'll make reference to some of them once I get into writing these) but none of them went long into the specific sub-series within the Virgin Ambient imprint. Here's how I imagine these posts breaking down: 

Week 1: A Brief History of Ambient Vols. 1-4

Week 2: Macro Dub Infection Vols. 1&2

Week 3: Ocean of Sound Vols. 1-4

Week 4: Jazz Satellites Vol. 1 and the planned but never released Vol. 2

Week 5: Monsters, Robots and Bugmen; Techno Animal: Re-Entry

I'm going to go deep on these and will spend a bit of time doing research, so I don't plan on publishing one of these a week but do plan on finishing the series before the end of summer. As always, thanks for reading! 

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