''From Here We Go Sublime'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Swedish

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

producer Axel Willner under his alias The Field, released by

Kompakt Kompakt ( Labelcode: LC 12012) is a Cologne-based electronic music independent record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known ...

on 26 March 2007.

Production

''From Here We Go Sublime'' consists primarily of tracks recorded by Willner as the Field between 2004 and 2006, though the album also includes tracks produced before this period, one of which was originally recorded under a different alias. Willner's production style is sample-based, employing cut-up and resequenced manipulations of snippets of other artists' music, including

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

's "Under Ice" on "Over the Ice",

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of the Motown group Commodores; writing and recor ...

's "

Hello Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the '' Norwich Cou ...

" on "A Paw in My Face",

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

's "

Everywhere Everywhere may refer to: * Everywhere (band) * ''Everywhere'' (Roswell Rudd album), 1966 * ''Everywhere'' (Gerald Wilson album), 1968 * ''Everywhere'' (Tim McGraw album), 1997 ** "Everywhere" (Tim McGraw song), title track from the album * "E ...

" on "Everyday", and

The Flamingos The Flamingos are an American doo-wop group formed in Chicago in 1953. The band became popular in mid-to-late 1950s and are best known for their 1959 cover version of "I Only Have Eyes for You". They have since been hailed as being one of the f ...

' "

I Only Have Eyes for You "I Only Have Eyes for You" is a song by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin. The song was written for the 1934 film ''Dames (film), Dames'', in which it was performed by Dick Powell. Several other successful recordings of the song were m ...

" on "From Here We Go Sublime".

Style and themes

Despite ''From Here We Go Sublime'' being released on the

label, known primarily for

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

, the album's sound has been described as "less techno than it is

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

". Jess Harvell of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' 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". 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". ''From Here We Go Sublimes song titles have been described as vague, and the songs themselves having no intelligible lyrics beyond sampled vocals which have been edited and chopped up. Willner dislikes lyrical content and chose to treat sampled vocals as instruments rather than as voices, as "it gives (the music) a special feeling."

Release and reception

''From Here We Go Sublime'' was released on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

and

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

. The album was released to great critical acclaim from various publications, and, along with

Burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

's '' Untrue'', was the best-received album of 2007 on the music critic aggregators site

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. It was named the 29th best album of the decade by ''

Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform established in 2001 and dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. Its editorial team provides news, music and ev ...

''. Willner was surprised by the positive reception to the album, stating that "since it is a bit different than (most) other techno, I thought that people wouldn't like it."

Track listing

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2007 debut albums The Field (musician) albums Kompakt albums