Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II Expanded Edition (Vinyl 4LP)

Selected Ambient Works Volume II is an ambient album by Aphex Twin, the Cornwall-based producer Richard D. James, released through Warp on 7 March 1994. While its predecessor Selected Ambient Works 85 to 92 worked in ambient techno, this one is closer to beatless: three hours of slow synthesiser pieces that James credited to lucid dreaming and once compared to standing in a power station. Most of the tracks were left officially untitled and identified on the sleeve by abstract photographs and pie charts scaled to each track's length, which is why the fan titles coined by Greg Eden have circulated ever since. It entered the UK albums chart at number 11 and the UK dance albums chart at number one, and Pitchfork later placed it second on its list of the greatest ambient albums ever made. This thirtieth-anniversary expanded edition is remastered by Matt Colton and restores the two tracks dropped from CD pressings and later vinyl repressings, alongside two additions: Th1 [Evnslower] and Rhubarb Orc. 19.53 Rev, a reversed orchestral version of track three performed by the AUKSO Tychy Chamber Orchestra and OCTAVA Ensemble. James dedicated the reissue to his mother Lorna, who died in 2022.