THE FIELD - The Follower

Alex Willner is one of the few artists to have genuinely redefined the concept of the loop within the vast techno cauldron over the past decade. His output has been instantly recognisable since his stunning debut, in which the electronic recombination of seemingly "pop" structures, geared towards a production style as obsessive as it is formidable, gradually became his absolute trademark.

Having reached his fifth LP after repeatedly shifting his production approach, alternating between his many parallel micro-projects (among which Loops Of Your Heart certainly stands out, the one he "debuted" with in 2012, resulting so far in a single album), Willner returns a full three years after his excellent 2013 release "Cupid's Head".

Once again, a dreamy, angelic techno dominates the scene, "pushed" while keeping a firm foot on the accelerator. On the opening title track, this blend leans both toward certain murky, skewed moods in the vein of Sandwell District, and toward the usual highly emotional (e)stasis achieved by channeling the beat through deliberately plodding patterns that are nonetheless never oppressive. The obsession, rather, lies in the Swedish manipulator's constant will to reach for some kind of celestial vault onto which to project his own fantasies. A sort of heavenly dancefloor imagined among sky and stars ("Pink Sun"). The record also throws up a few moments unusual for The Field's brand, such as the circular pulse of "Soft Dreams": ten minutes of light and shadow emitted through a kick drum that simply refuses to change direction.

New, soft ambient rarefactions dominate the scene on the "endless" and captivating "Raise The Dead", through which, unfortunately, a vaguely soporific effect begins to show here and there. It's the risk run by anyone chasing their own ecstatic escape from the world through a sound calibrated to valium, whose variations cater a little too much to a certain spirituality rather than to the pure, hard entertainment of the original blueprint.

The closing "Reflectings Lights" is at once a volley of plastic pulsations tracing circular orbits, in an epic, relentless crescendo of cosmic keyboards dispersing into the void, amid synthesized bongos and other staging devices with the usual dreamy shades.

“The Follower” thus presents us with Alex Willner once again pursuing, in his own peculiar (and at times “stubborn”) way, a techno sound that is as fairytale-like as it is persuasive. This time, the delicate and introverted Stockholm producer risks anesthetizing the listener a little too much, drifting him off to sleep in places, while the longed-for dream gradually takes on the features of a mirage. It's a danger that has only partially crept into “old” Alex's methods and intentions, but one worth bearing in mind for future assessments. Otherwise, boredom looms, avoidable as it may be.

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03/05/2016