THE FIELD - Looping State of Mind - ( Kompakt | 2012 )
It's with the arrival of Looping State Of Mind that you finally realise that, for The Field's ambient techno explorer Axel Willner, the loop never stops. While fans and critics alike point to 2007's phenomenal debut From Here We Go Sublime - included in Pitchfork's Top 100 albums of the 2000s - and 2009's equally stirring follow up Yesterday & Today as standalone points of the Swede's music; it becomes clear that they appear as mere snapshots of what, for the producer, is a continual cycle of revolutions. Revelling in the warm recognition of their recurring patterns, imbuing conflicting twin senses of present and nostalgia, familiarity doesn't breed contempt; for Willner sees each loop as another chance to adjust, to build upon and multiply so that several of even the slightest nuances can combine to form a true aural evolution. So it is on this, The Field's third album, and yet so it has been too for the artist.
What's truly evident - as has always done with The Field's music - is its evocative quality, how it can stir a half-image or memory of a certain time or event in its listener's past. To that end it makes the trio's output an open-ended interpretation; moods and feelings are provided, allowing the listener to then follow them towards requisite personal checkpoints - something made succinct in the album's title. "It comes from the feeling of having looping thoughts - both good and bad - in your head, and being unable to get them out," explains Willner, "but then, of course, my music is based around loops and repetition too."
And so for The Field the loop keeps on spinning, a journey that may find no location yet is content to know that it's moving firmly forwards. This most recent snapshot that they've decided to take, however, is their most captivating yet.
Also available on Vinyl.
What's truly evident - as has always done with The Field's music - is its evocative quality, how it can stir a half-image or memory of a certain time or event in its listener's past. To that end it makes the trio's output an open-ended interpretation; moods and feelings are provided, allowing the listener to then follow them towards requisite personal checkpoints - something made succinct in the album's title. "It comes from the feeling of having looping thoughts - both good and bad - in your head, and being unable to get them out," explains Willner, "but then, of course, my music is based around loops and repetition too."
And so for The Field the loop keeps on spinning, a journey that may find no location yet is content to know that it's moving firmly forwards. This most recent snapshot that they've decided to take, however, is their most captivating yet.
Also available on Vinyl.
