The Ambient series of compilations, issued in 1993 & 1994, seemed like the standard record label cash-in to the rise of Beyond Records, Aphex Twin and The Orb, but Virgin had a large back catalogue of interesting world music and ambient albums, including reissues of the original Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno. Between this series and Mixing It, I was, as a young teenager, schooled in many musical genres and both monumental classics and obscure gems.
They used people who actually knew something about music to compile them – Simon Hopkins, part musician, part journalist and Simon Heyworth, who produced records such as Tubular Bells. The covers were designed by 90s favourite Buggy G Riphead.
The compilations aren’t perfect – obvious needs to try and sell some recent releases balanced with classics, a bit of a prog tendency, and towards the 3rd and 4th they’d raided the best of the back catalogue and had to go down increasingly obscure routes – but they showed that ambient isn’t the whale humping muzak touted by a million meditation CDs, and in fact had a long rich history, taking in influences from all kinds of musical genres.
Anyway, I’ve compiled what’s available from the 4 albums into a Spotify playlist. It isn’t perfect, with notable omissions across the series of Robert Fripp and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – but there’s still 6 hours of varied music. Those who Google may be able to find more complete versions.
The Ambient label on Virgin continued to issue compilations, under the skilful hands of Techno Animal and David Toop, and a few albums by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Edgar Froese, Paul Schütze and others.
<3
— Blaine Cook 23.01.11 #
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