In 1989, Oldfield created a seven-minute version of Tubular Bells for a BBC program. Despite Richard Branson pressuring the Reading musician since 1982 to make a sequel to Tubular Bells, Oldfield instead prepared an all-vocal album with seven different vocalists, which he titled Earth Moving.

The album following Earth Moving was an entirely instrumental, one-hour-long single-track work. Titled Amarok and released in 1990, it was conceived as Oldfield's personal revenge against Branson and the Virgin executives, who refused to release a symphonic album of his unless it was called Tubular Bells II. Throughout the symphony, there was a series of Morse code messages in which Oldfield criticized Virgin and insulted Branson with the sole intention, in his own words, "to annoy the rich record company executives who drive their Ferraris." This was a return to the format that made him popular with Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, and Ommadawn. Amarok reunited Oldfield with Tom Newman, the sound engineer for Tubular Bells. This single piece was a blend of English folk, flamenco, and African music, combining the latest musical and studio technology with Oldfield's classic sound. Amarok was one of the longest musical pieces ever released, considered by many fans to be his best work alongside Ommadawn.

Heaven's Open was released in 1991, with a structure similar to Platinum: one long composition and several songs. For the first time, all the songs were sung by Oldfield—credited this time as "Michael Oldfield"—without any other backing vocalists. Regarding this, he stated in an interview:



This is an album that, on the one hand, exudes the hope and excitement of the new chapter opening in Oldfield's career, and on the other, reveals the pain the record company had inflicted upon him. The album's long, instrumental piece, "Music From The Balcony", is an experimental work full of cacophonies, which many believe was deliberately poorly made as a final act of revenge against Virgin.