The Field

One of the Kompakt label's most beloved and polarizing producers (he was accused of being a formula-reliant one-trick pony), Sweden's Axel Willner debuted with Things Keep Falling Down, a 12" containing a pair of blissed-out trance-techno tracks over ten minutes in length -- one of which, "Thought vs. Action," made clever use of the intro to the Four Tops' "I'll Be There." A follow-up 12", Sun and Ice (with samples of Lionel Richie and Kate Bush), appeared in 2006, leading to the 2007 full-length From Here We Go Sublime. Two of his most impressive tracks appeared on Kompakt's Pop Ambient 2007 and Pop Ambient 2008 compilations. A second album, the more rhythmically varied Yesterday and Today, appeared in 2009. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi