Kompakt Germany
2007
From Here We Go Sublime
About This Album
An atypical album release by Kompakt, From Here We Go Sublime, the debut full-length release by the Field, is nevertheless stunning, its less-is-more aesthetic striking because of its elegance as well as ease. For this reason alone, it's no wonder the German label, traditionally known for minimal techno, chose to release this album by Swedish producer Axel Willner, whose style -- with its steady sense of propulsion, rhythmic invariance, and embrace of melody -- is less techno than it is trance. Rest assured, though, that this isn't trance as you know it -- euphoric fodder for superclubs this is not. Willner seems to draw primary influence from Wolfgang Voigt, whose productions as All and Gas are touchstones of contemporary ambient techno, especially the style championed by Kompakt on its annual Pop Ambient series of compilations (some of which, the earlier volumes in particular, include Voigt productions). The cut-up glitch style perfected by Akufen is another point of comparison for the Field, whose tracks often employ sampled snippets that are resequenced melodically (for instance, "A Paw in My Face" borrows millisecond snippets of Lionel Richie's schmaltzy ballad "Hello" to delightful effect).
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5,7,8 and 9)

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