| From Here We Go Sublime | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Field | ||||
| Released | April 2007 | |||
| Genre | Minimal Techno, Ambient Techno | |||
| Length | 65:45 | |||
| Label | Kompakt | |||
| The Field chronology | ||||
|
||||
From Here We Go Sublime is the highly acclaimed debut album from Axel Willner under his alias as The Field. Produced by Willner, it was released on Kompakt in March 2007 (April 2007 in the United States, and May 2007 on Octave Lab in Japan). The musical style of From Here We Go Sublime has been described as minimal techno with strong influences from trance as well as shoegaze music.
Contents |
The album mostly consists of tracks recorded between 2004 and 2006. There are some tracks recorded before this period, including one recorded under another alias. The album includes many sample manipulations of material by artists including Kate Bush, the Four Tops, The Flamingos and Lionel Richie.[1]
Despite From Here We Go Sublime being released on the Kompakt label which is known more for its German techno, the album's sound has been described as "less techno than it is trance".[2] Jess Harvell of Pitchfork Media also noted the style's similarity due to an "anthemic bigness to Willner's little sounds, a certain shameless bombastic quality to the way he deploys his loops and builds his arpeggio" and the "elementary drum tracks, often just a deflated machine thump flecked with hi-hat hiss".[3]
The themes of the music on From Here We Go Sublime has been noted for its "unabashed emotionalism" with songs suggesting "bliss", "melancholy" and "loss".[4] From Here We Go Sublime's song titles have been described as vague, and with no intelligible lyrics with the sampled vocals which have been edited and chopped up.[4][2] Willner isn't a fan of lyrics and chose to use the vocals as an instrument instead of a voice, as "it gives (the music) a special feeling."[1]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [2] |
| BBC Collective | [5] |
| Dusted Magazine | (favorable)[4] |
| NME | (8/10)[6] |
| Pitchfork Media | (9.0/10)[3] |
| PopMatters | (8/10)[7] |
| Stylus Magazine | (A)[8] |
| The Phoenix | [9] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | [10] |
| The Village Voice | (favorable)[11] |
From Here We Go Sublime was released on compact disc and vinyl record by Kompakt records.[2][12] The album failed to chart in the United States, but was released to great critical acclaim from various publications, and was the best-received album of 2007 on the music critic aggregators site Metacritic.[13] Willner was surprised by the positive reception of the album, stating that "Since it is a bit different than (most) other techno, I thought that people wouldn’t like it."[1] It was named the 29th best album of the decade by Resident Advisor.[14]
All songs by Axel Willner