March 7, 2024, is the 30th anniversary of Selected Ambient Works Volume II. How would you describe this mysterious album? And was it really made in James’ dreams you think?
@@madcap_9539 From Aphex Twin's interview with The Face, 1994: "For the record company. Richard has compared them with "standing in a power station on acid." For the record, they sound mighty close to Brian Eno's "Another Green World" period, but the power station analogy is apt. "Power stations are wicked," Richard says "If you just stand in the middle of a really massive one, you get a really weird presence and you've got that hum. You just feel electricity around you. That's totally dreamlike for me. It's just like a right strange dimension.""
I think he did create at least some of the music in his dreams, i mean it is not impossible and his music and persona matches well with what i think he would hear in dreams. I too sometimes dream of music and what he said about it is true, its never the same, but for a person as dedicated as afx i think he did get really good at transporting his ideas to the real world. When i have tried to play whats in ny dreams on guitar its really easy cause notes are just notes (doesnt mean its good, just like remembering dreams, things arent as amazing or real when you just imagine them, in a dream you are there, here in this world you are just imitating something from another reality, its weird), but ambient is just so rich in sound and texture and for him to create those sounds in his dreams seems as unbelievable as it is fitting for the music. Dont kno why i typed so much...
Lost is how I describe SAW II, from start to finish. Put it on and you are in the emotional realm of Lost for 3 hours, in every sense of the word. I believe SAW II triggers specific emotional realms not unlike psychoactive medications, I'm serious. I realized this when I found comments on the Aphex Twin YT channel for SAW II tracks. So many listeners relating the same kinds of experiences and memories and feelings from their pasts, yet these impressions feel they are beyond simple nostalgia. SAW II tracks reach deeper into the mind and heart with these emotional soundscapes - enigmatic and drawing in the listener to be Lost.
An essential album. It was the very first completely ambient album I ever listened to. Still has the same effect on me; it is still astonishing, awe-inspiring. Thank you for your video!
I have only listened to this album when falling asleep. I can only make it to the third track awake. It’s very weird because the rest of the album I am familiar with, but only with what I remember in my dreams. I have a reoccurring moment in my dreams where I will be in the middle of a dream and I can hear stone in focus, and I will interrupt anything that is happening in the dream to go into a trance with my arms in the air and communicate with the song. Sometimes the song with the eerie voices will pull me out of whatever dream space I am in and I have returned to what seems to be a giant library with many faceless people shuffling about. There are more things that happen, but things merely a comment. I have listened to the album this way since I heard of it, and I will not stop.
1:29 - 1:46 This description is very similar to things I have read or heard of Jeff Lynne and Prince regarding their music work ethic. Just doing nothing but spending 14 hours a day in the studio making music. I suspect the same can be said of Jacob Collier. These men and James are just pure conduits for music evident in their richness, originality, and creativity overall.
actually amazing video honestly. I think its really cool how he talks about lucid dreaming even if maybe some of it is him being funny with the press. I love at the very least attempting it (ive been successful a few times) and find it crazy that one of my biggest inspirations, richard d james, does it as well. Ive even heard songs completely made up in my dreams - not necessarily me making them as im not knowledgeable in producing music (though id like to give it a try) - but instead just randomly occuring in my dreams sometimes, and it always sounds pretty amazing. I bring it up because it happened last night and I swear it sounded like Aphex Twin. I don't know anyone who really comes close to what he's doing.
Congrats, very well documented, I loved the conclusion of it : what matters the most is the act of creating. Do whatever you love for the pure joy of it and pursue your passion! I would add to this : try to put your soul in everything you do!
Nice to see one of my suggestions realised ;) =] So to get very personal: I managed as a late teenager to get a copy of the *Warp* issued CD, which has 24 out of 25 tracks. (The US issued CD through Sire/Warner only had 23: #4 or "hankie" was dropped because of the whole 74-minute limit). This was after being familiar with Ambient 1 and knowing that ambient sits very well with me in general. With all of that, I loved it right away and definitely picked up the vivid imagination of it all. In fact, when entered college, I could imagine particular photographs in my mind and would write free-verse poems for each of these images. Dreams inspire music inspire images inspire words ... I like that kind of flow =] I just realised also that I had heard this before knowing what it was. This album would play before Nine Inch Nails performed during the "Fragility 2.0" tour (the North American leg supporting The Fragile). The track that first caught my ear then was "white blur 2" and this will be confirmed once I heard the album. And to get a bit academic, there's definitely a lot of Brian Eno as well as Erik Satie. In fact, I hear "lichen" (my personal favourite cut) as a kind of answer to Discreet Music (the track as well as the album).
Hi! Awesome vid! I make some music myself and i just wanna say, i also lucid dream often, and i also hear sounds or music in my dreams. I didn't know that James said he does as well and trys to recreate it until pretty recently. Ive done the same for a long time. In my dreams i can fly whenever i want and i know im dreaming. I can decide where i am usually.
Oh my god this editing and narration is phenomenal! And the sound design too! It’s so hypnotic!! The editing reminds me of Middle 8 another music RU-vidr. I HAVE to subscribe! These videos are wayyy too good
Omg this was fantastic. I also make videos on music and just got a jolt of inspiration from you. You deserve way more views. Just subscribed I can’t wait for more
Thank you! I'm glad you (and hopefully other creatives as well) found some value in the video as that was kind of the message with this one especially :)
Id argue he's half lying half telling the truth, I once listened to a bunch of random EDM songs in a playlist and f**ked around in some random DAWS and then went to sleep I remember having these songs in my dreams that sounded beautiful almost, a really catchy melody but not catchy enough for me to remember after I woke up
@@IamJustTheBiscuityOfTheSeaity yeah, unfortunately it never sounds as good when you wake up! Paul Mcartney claimed to have woken up with the melody to 'Yesterday' in his head, so I'm sure it happens sometimes. But claiming to exclusively create everything you do in a state of lucid dreaming is probably taking the piss. This is a man who also claimed to not have a driving licence, but to drive a fully functioning tank....
