Various – Excursions In Ambience (The Third Dimension)

Has anyone noticed that first track title by Spacetime Continuum is not the same as from their Sea biscuit album...? The same song is titled Voices of the Earth on their album ~

Bought for the Aphex track and knew a few of these artists prior, but this selection is excellent.

I truly love this 4 albums, pure 90s magic, top notch

Over time, I've grown less enamored with this compilation, but it's still not bad.

As reviewed by me in January 1995:

Summary: Excellent compilation of modern ambient, as expected.

This tops out my ambient compilation list. Astralwerks does it again, this time pulling together some much less percussive tracks and concentrating on spacey, headtrippy themes. Compiled by Brian Long, the man who answers your [email protected] email, Excursions in Ambience 3 is the best of the series.

When reviewing CDs I try to pinpoint a type of audience that would best appreciate the albums. Usually I can say that a release is geared toward fans of a particular type of ambient music, but in this case I really think that anyone can get into at least half the tracks on this disc. It's not "pop" ambient by any stretch; it's just some damn good music.

Seefeel and Spectrum explore treated-guitar atmospherics, Mike Kandel and Aphex Twin go the minimal route, Spacetime Continuum and Grain develop that West Coast sound, Pete Namlook's Air simply astonishes, Bill Laswell's Divination lets you know how ambient dub *should* sound, and FSOL and Steve Fisk experiment with artsy-fartsy sample manipulation.

I haven't got one bad thing to say about this comp. Even the Spacetime Contiuum track is decent. Go buy.

The best RDJ track that could have been and is kind of supposed to be on SAWII. In my top 5 fav all time tracks

The best installment in the series. A must have if only for the extremely rare Aphex Twin closing track.

I have this album, but on cassette: ASW 6119 4

Steve Fisk's Express God is spooky as sin. Great stoner album for 7 tracks; a pleasant adventure into sound... until this evil thing comes out of the speakers. Then the last 2 tracks (Mike Kandel & Aphex Twin) save the day.

This is an excellent compilation there are no awful tracks (one creepy one). But I specifically got this for the Future Sound of London track; it's exclusive to the compilation (on all 3 versions: tape, cd, vinyl).

Also worth mentioning is that this is the only (?) place you can find Aphex Twin's "#19" on CD. It is the 19th track from his "Selected Ambient Works II" LP, which was omitted on the CD version. It's the picture of wall-to-wall carpet, sometimes called "Stone in Focus", and one of the best on the album.

In spite of the lackluster, early-to-mid 90s graphic design, this compilation packs a solid ambient wallop, with a broad range of pieces from a stong line-up of artists. From the lush, full sounds of Spacetime Continuum's "Floatilla" and Grain's (apparently of edgy FatCat techno fame) "Birth.Son" to the introspective soundscapes of "Charlotte's Mouth," and Aphex Twin's hauntingly simple "#19," this assembly is high quality. And for the record, Air in this scenario is Pete Namlook, taken from his Fax label.