Track Listings

1	Over the Ice
2	A Paw in My Face
3	Good Things End
4	The Little Heart Beats So Fast
5	Everday
6	Silent
7	The Deal
8	Sun & Ice
9	Mobilia
10	From Here We Go Sublime

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

2007 debut album from Sweden's Axel Willner AKA the Field. From Here We Go Sublime features 10 songs that fuse the Shoegazing sound of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Ride with modern Ambient, Techno and Electronic elements. Features 'Over the Ice', 'Silent' and the single 'Good Things End'. Kompakt.

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Electronic music usually profits from simplicity, a point the Fields Axel Willner understood well when he made From Here We Go Sublime. Hailing from Sweden, Willners record has a weightless allure built out of droning spaces and populated with puffy cloud melodies that float and hover. Its not exactly minimalist, because the layers are too complex and full of forward motion. But the assured way they repeat and loop into a dance-friendly texture would make both Brian Eno and Underworld proud.

FHWGS has no interest in the usual peaks and valleys of trance, and yet its consistent anthemic oomph makes it a distant relative of that oft-derided genre. Willners patience and his emphasis on muted beats enable him to get maximum impact with only slight tweaks. "Over the Ice" sets the table with soft tones and scattered, wordless voices before dropping a hyper cross-rhythm, while glitch-y sidebars frame the exceedingly kind melody that drives "A Paw in My Voice." Even when the BPM notch gets kicked up on a relative burner like "Everyday," it fits right in with the records benevolent disposition. Its brilliant stuff, a less-is-more epic that wafts onto the dance floor like a gust of summer wind. --Matthew Cooke

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.16 x 5.51 x 0.28 inches; 1.9 ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Kompakt Germany
Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2007
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ March 15, 2007
Label ‏ : ‎ Kompakt Germany
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000NQDDO6
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #311,425 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #1,265 in Techno (CDs & Vinyl)
- #1,634 in Ambient (CDs & Vinyl)
- #3,909 in Electronica (CDs & Vinyl)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 35 ratings

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Javier M. Perez

Get it

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2008

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The question here is simple - if you are looking at reviews it is because you want to know whether you should buy it or not. The answer is easy as well: Get it. It's worth it

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somethingexcellent

Stunning minimal dance debut

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2007

As I mentioned recently in a review for Gui Boratto's Chromophobia album, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish the exact reasons why one minimal electronic release is better than another one, due to similarities in production and overall sound. Of course, in the end it usually comes down largely to personal perceptions that can't be explained, but other defining characteristics (because of the constructs of the music itself) are nearly always very, very subtle in and of themselves.

From Here We Go Sublime is yet another release on the Kompakt label that is nonetheless completely stunning, and for reasons mentioned above, it's difficult to explain why. The debut release from Sweden's Axel Willner, it drifts somewhere between minimal dance music and repetitive ambience, with beats that clomp along fast enough to fuel movement, but with enough ethereal qualities that you could simply put it on and trip out on the couch with it easily enough as well. Essentially, it's trance music of the highest quality, veering completely leftward of the cheeseball Global Underground crowd, and falling somewhere between the work of Kaito (also on the Kompakt label) and Wolfgang Voigt (aka Gas).

Willner actually has a few things in common with micro-sample sculptor Akufen, but instead of trying to wow you with his cutting ability and a frantic hand, he has pulled out hundreds of little heavily melodic snippets and stutters and scatters them across gorgeous expanses, building tracks slowly and letting them peak subtlety. The release opens with "Over The Ice," a single that was released last year to great acclaim, and for good reason. The piece is a perfect introduction to his sound, with micro samples of vocals that flutter over a relentless 4/4 thump, building basslines, and all kinds of subtle spacial effects.

With ten songs running nearly exactly an hour in length, it's also a remarkably consistent release. "Good Things End" is constructed as many other tracks on the release, with jittery vocals samples over a rambling, rolling beat and some sudden bursts of tweaked noise. Even though the aforementioned "Over The Ice" got his foot in the door, there are actually a slew of tracks on From Here We Go Sublime that are even better. "Everday" is a perfect example, again building with spiraling upward beats and slippery programming while bright, overlapping vocal samples push things higher and higher until the stunning ending.

At ten minutes "The Deal" is the longest track on the album, but doesn't feel a bit weary as it pushes forward with devastating low-end bass and sprays of overdriven noise. It's the closest thing to Gas (who was supposedly one of his biggest musical inspirations) on the release, and manages to sound both hazy and clear as day at the same time. An outstanding debut, From Here We Go Sublime is yet another excellent album from the Kompakt this label and a release that has gotten some of the most play of anything I've heard this year. If you like minimal electronic music at all, you must seek it out.

(from almost cool music reviews)

36 people found this helpful

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scoundrel

Field, The - From Here We Go Sublime

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2011

The Field's _From Here We Go Sublime_ seems mistitled, because sublime is already here. I had to admit, on the first listen of this album, I wasn't taken with it. After being so heavily hyped, I had expected something more mind-blowing. But on the second listening, that's when the mind-blowing occurred. Loop-based music is incredibly easy to make, but is incredibly difficult to do well. But Axel Willner, the man behind The Field, has hit on a stunningly gorgeous method: his stuttering loops create almost a trance-like feel to the track such that the variations, when they come, pound into your consciousness, recreating the track anew. So even as a track like "Silent" seems straightforward when it begins, it has morphed into something unrecognizable by its midway point. Even the opening track, "Over the Ice," has its recurring vocal textures, right before things suddenly go acid. But Willner also has some surprises: when the guitar loop of "A Paw in My Face" finally resolves at the end, we can hear the complete transformation of the source material into the blissful hiccups. The same goes with the ambient title track and its slow deconstruction of Motown. "Good Things End" gallops along with thick percussion, like a pack of wild horses across a boreal tundra, and "The Deal" takes a similar aggressive stance before thundering itself into a spacious territory. "The Little Heart Beats So Fast" takes a little expression of pleasure and acidifies it into a full-fledged groover, while the brightness of "Everyday" swings into something new with the introduction of the vocals before it returns to the opening motif. The standout track, "Sun & Ice," has such a richness of sound that it seems to glow in the consciousness, even as it suddenly decays and resumes. _From Here We Go Sublime_ offers so many pleasures that one can return to it again and again, each time discovering new things.

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2007

I had no patience for this album at first. It is highly repetitive and simple. I'll admit that I was bored. I gave it some more chances, though. I listened to it while doing other things as background. I highly recommend doing the same. The beauty comes out in the details. It is written on a micro-level. It takes some work rather than the typical instant gratification of a macro composition. You come to expect some of the detailed tiny changes that happen. The gratification is well worth it. This is beautiful if you give it a chance.

6 people found this helpful

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David K.

Derivative, but still powerful

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2012

This album sounds like bittersweet emotion, euphoric joy mixed with anxiety and regret. The music itself is not very complex; just minimal beats, tones and vocals that morph slowly, but it is able to convey so much. It makes me want to travel, to go get lost. This is what we listen to music for; not for complexity or technical chops but for pure, unadulterated bliss. Give it a spin without any preconceptions and you may enjoy it.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2007

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Hate to admit that I'm one of those just a little baffled by the wondrous reviews this disc has received. It consists of the steady, and rather conservative, rhythms that are used in creating the foundation for basic club music. Nothing more. It is hilarious when one track rapidly fades out just as a guitar starts to be introduced into the mix. If this stuff was public domain, it would be perfect for someone to use for home recording along with whatever lead instruments or vocals they might want to add. But on its own it takes shoe-gazing to a level of serious introversion. I don't know.

39 people found this helpful

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Peter Duff

Techno joy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2021

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A high quality and different take on the dub techno genre
More melodic in stricture than pure minimalism but not a single filler and the title is pretty apt
A must for dub and minimal techno fans

Patrick

This is an excellent LP, but I do have to say that ...

Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent LP, but I do have to say that the song "A Paw In My Face" sounds off-key on vinyl, still worth the purchase though.

Amazon カスタマー

残像の美しさ

Reviewed in Japan on February 28, 2016

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ミニマルテクノ、サイコー!
テクノ初心者で、コンパクトレーベルを探っていたら巡り合った、時代を感じさせない名盤です。
一聴、のっぺりとしている様ですが、聴き込む程に盛り上がりを感じさせる造形美。

4 people found this helpful

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Mathieu Novák

Un disque fondamental

Reviewed in France on May 29, 2007

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Ca a l'air simpliste. Mais ne vous y trompez pas. Imaginez-vous dans un avion, à basse altitude, rasant les plaines de la toundra, un iceberg à droite sur l'océan, quelques fleurs d'un rose flamboyant, une ou deux bestioles arctiques vous regardant étonnées. Surréaliste, simple et enchanteur.

The Field poursuit les paysages, les colore d'une musique sereine et laisse sur son passage des traînées qui des heures plus tard garnissent encore les belles vallées explorées. Une musique en apesanteur, mais rythmée. Régulière comme un métronome, mais envoûtante. A l'apparence démunie et irréfléchie... en réalité elle est tout le contraire. Dans le minimalisme du rythme l'on trouve des nappes aux textures riches.

Ce rythme d'ailleurs est étonnant, car il bien rare d'être ainsi aspiré par des sons qui d'habitude réveillent. Ici, au contraire, ils emportent loin. Vers le sublime?

Pas de chacras, pas de mystiques ou d'illuminés derrière les machines, pourtant. Il s'agit juste de personnes ayant un regard lumineux, et qui le transmettent directement à leur musique. Un album fondamental.

17 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Super

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2021

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Bought used and came perfect! super happy

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