Field Studies: Axel Willner offers the sublime “Yesterday and Today”

By Tom Lynch

Axel Willner, the Swedish musician who releases as The Field, offered “From Here We Go Sublime” in 2007, a virtual masterpiece of minimal microhouse and ambient techno, a pulsing, cosmic hymn that sways and drifts and offers new discoveries with each listen, even two years down the road.

“Yesterday and Today” is Willner’s follow-up, again on Kompakt, a full-length record of only six tracks. (Three of the songs each top out at more than ten minutes in length.) Willner again mixes in live elements—including an appearance by Battles drummer John Stainer—and even vocals, as on the Korgis cover “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime,” which is, consequently, the least intriguing track on the otherwise fantastic record. Some have voiced their disappointment in Willner’s treading of familiar ground—in their defense, if you don’t adore “Sublime,” this record won’t change your mind—but one could just as easily revel in the musician’s skills. “Yesterday and Today” may not seems as monumental or downright important as The Field’s first record, but it’s a fine album, full of crisp treads through a dreamlike reality. Willner can hypnotize you will surreal beauty, but he can just as easily motivate you with his incessant structuring.

Willner says that his vision of the band changed once he began incorporating live instruments. “It all changed a bit—I had been using musicians live halfway through touring for ‘From Here We Go Sublime,’ and I felt like it was working really well with them,” he says. “I wanted to take that in the studio too.”

Willner, who recently relocated from Stockholm to Berlin, acknowledges that the writing process for “Yesterday and Today” was more collaborative than with other records. “Sort of,” he says. “In the beginning it was a lot of preproduction by me in Berlin in my apartment, making sketches and things. After pre-recording and jamming around, trying out things and rearranging, [the songs took shape]. It was really like that.”

Bored with the idea of strictly being a laptop musician, Willner incorporated more elements pretty quickly. “I was pretty weary of just playing shows by myself,” he says. “I felt enslaved by my computer. I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do. I have my roots in punk rock, in playing with bands. I missed it, and I wanted to bring in friends, too.”

He believes it’s helped. “I think just the mentality, playing music with others, it’s better,” he says. “It’s also that it’s so much better when we’re playing live, to have more people on the stage with much more happening. It’s much better to look at.”

He says his move to Berlin has influenced him some. “It’s more the heritage,” the says. “Older German music, I’m into. I rarely go out to clubs—when I was younger it was more fun to go to the crazy clubs they have in Berlin. As a musician, I was always drawn to the city in many ways. I think it’s very inspiring for me in a new city. It’s always good to have things to explore. In Stockholm, I had been living there all my life, so it got a little boring. It was time for something new.”

Because of The Field’s fusion of electronics and live instrumentation—plus long, slow-building tracks that Willner says the band leaves open for live improvisation—most often you’ll find the group performing in traditional rock venues rather than nightclubs, or even mainstream rock festivals. “I think the music differs quite much from the usual music you only dance to and not really listen to,” Willner says. “We got stuck somewhere between, that’s why it’s in a more traditional music-fest style. It’s a different kind of music—there’s not that much techno, and a lot of people want to listen to it, not just dance to it.”

You can certainly imagine both. Audiences divided, some enveloped by the rhythmic pulse and others arms-crossed and plaintive, maybe nursing a cocktail in the back. “It half depends,” Willner concurs. “Like in Washington, people were dancing a lot. We take some time to get it started—it’s very ambient in the beginning. But it’s a natural progression for the music and the audience, and yeah, I think it works. If they’re not dancing they’re swaying. It’s cool.”

The Field performs June 16 at Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, (773)489-3160, at 9pm. $15.