Oct 13, 2019

Sundaze 1941

Hello, it's amazing what such a huge tropical Typhoon can do and here i am watching the Grand Prix qualifying, the weather is fine bit windy the track cleaned by the enormous amounts of rain that lashed it in the past 24 hours, the 1st session saw 2 red flags Magnussen looked reparable, but Kubica simply crashed his car, he's become bitter after his miraculous comeback into F1 at Williams with a dud car became a joke . Anyway Vettel got pole with Leclerc 2nd, Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen and Albon on 6th latter  surprisingly in the same time as Verstappen, clearly Max's less downforce strategy didn't work.



Today's artist is the recording alias of Magnus Birgersson, an electronic musician, composer, and sound designer from Gothenburg, Sweden. Birgersson's music spans the genres of ambient, IDM, downtempo, and psy-trance, and he has also composed numerous video game soundtracks, the Swedish electronic music artist is better known by his stage name Solar Fields, As of 2019, he has released eighteen albums, and has also scored all interactive in-game music for the Electronic Arts game Mirror's Edge as well as its sequel, Mirror's Edge Catalyst. His latest album, Origin#03, was released on 1 June 2019.......N-Joy

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Gothenburg-based Swedish composer, sound designer, and multi-instrumentalist Magnus Birgersson created Solar Fields in the late 1990s. Birgersson was raised in a musical family and began playing piano and synthesizers in the 1970s. In the mid-1980s he began combining synthesizers with computers. In addition to his ambient work, he has also been a guitar player in rock bands, a pianist in jazz funk bands, and keyboard player in drum and bass bands."

Under the moniker Solar Fields he composed 15 albums and appeared on over 60 various compilations. His first solo release was an ambient album named Reflective Frequencies, released on Ultimae in 2001. This was followed two years later by Blue Moon Station , which also included downtempo and trance, and was designed as a single fluid story.In late 2005, Solar Fields composed Leaving Home and Extended, the latter being a limited edition. His fifth album EarthShine, launched in 2007, featured more upbeat soundscapes blending morning trance, progressive, psychedelic, tribal and ambient music. This up-tempo album was warmly received by the progressive and psytrance scenes. This led to Electronic Arts and DICE commissioning Solar Fields for the in-game score for Mirror's Edge, a first-person action adventure video game released worldwide on November 14, 2008. The soundtrack was included in the VGC's "Top 20 Original Soundtracks in Gaming".

The following year, Solar Fields composed Movements. The album was ranked in the top 10 of best albums by Echoes listeners. The album Movements was also used as the soundtrack for the indie game Capsized from the small Canadian studio Alientrap in 2011. It remains his most popular album to date. In 2010, he used the harmonies and melodies of Movements in a remix album titled Altered - Second Movements and started the Origin series, four albums which aim to present archives and unreleased songs. Until We Meet the Sky and Random Friday were composed in parallel. In 2013, he released the second album in the Origin series, Origin #02.
He released his demo song "Cluster" later that year. His song "Pulse", along with a remix of it by Airwave, was released on June 30, 2014 by Joof Recordings;

 In 2014 Birgersson started his own label, Droneform Records, and released a series of digital compilations featuring updated, remixed, and remastered tracks from his catalog; the albums were titled Red, Green, and Blue. On September 30, 2015, it was confirmed by DICE and Birgersson that he was creating the in-game score of Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, and that he had been working on said score for twelve months as of the aforementioned date. More releases on his own label now Ourdom (2018) followed by a third edition of Origens, Origin#03 (2019)

Magnus has collaborated with Vincent Villuis, a.k.a. AES Dana, on H.U.V.A. Network and T.S.R. in the company of Daniel Segerstad and Johannes Hedberg from Carbon Based Lifeforms.



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The first album by Solar Fields reminds me very much of a soundtrack to some sci-fi PC game from the 90s. Not any in particular one, just the overall sound and mood. This album is a good fusion of downtempo and IDM. He became more ambient with later releases. The obvious influence of space is apparent here with the artwork and track titles (Red Vortex). I'd say I enjoy his later work better but this is a very worthy humble beginning. Tracks like Blue Light and Inherit Velocity really get me in the mood to watch a sci-fi movie with their deep, space-like rhythm. This is still chill but with edge. Likewise Zone 12 easily provides atmosphere for a daze, but one for floating, not vegetalizing. Outlined Surfaces likewise.



.Solar Fields - Reflective Frequencies ( 427mb)

01 6.7 4:21
02 Floating Channels 7:45
03 Self Transforming Experience (First Movement) 3:47
04 Blue Light... 4:06
05 ...Red Vortex 4:45
06 Echoing Spectrum 4:28
07 Inherit Velocity 2:39
08 Zero Rotation 7:06
09 Overlapping Particles 5:26
10 Self Transforming Experience (Second Movement) 7:04
11 Zone 12 4:30
12 Nea 3 2:46
13 Outlined Surfaces 7:48
14 Breathing Neutron Empire 6:02

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Overall, Solar Fields' sophmore album is slightly more upbeat than "Reflective frequencies". First of all, it sounds more down to earth to me. The spaced out attitude and far reaching sounds and effects have been toned down in favor of more straight forward trance; warm and analog melodic leads, occasional 4/4 percussion and a flow to the album which makes it an awkward listen to go through while in a horizontal posistion. Don't get me wrong though, the ambience is still here, though, just that it has been carefully blended with broken beat patterns, sounds of falling rain, old school goaesque melodies and other interesting stuff. It just may be that "Blue moon station" is Magnus Bigersson's most experimental piece of work, with a broader amount of territory covered than on his other albums. It's a quality listen throughout, but my main gripe with it is how the tracks have been arranged. I mean, placing fast tracks like Magic Eye and Infection 268-7 halfway through the album, just before the dubbed out and deep Magnetic Air is a glorious misstep. Just when you think the music would pick up, it sits back down. Majestic Feeling is so swell though. It starts out so erratic and uncontrolled with rabid percussion, only to transform into a mesmerizing ambient tune. And Solar Fields pulls it off with the same ease I eat my cereals with every morning. At the six-something mark he introduces this waterfall sound, and then after a while, the initial percussion is brought back into the track. Ah, the beauty! The title track has tribal drum programming with subtle melodies throughout, while Planet Zoo relies on quiet percussion with hypnotic and gentle melodies freely floating around. Third Time (A Version) follows in the footsteps of Planet Zoo, with a winning combination of light drum kicks colliding with superb melody work. "Blue moon station" is a worthwhile listen, especially for those who want more challenge and ecclectic attitude in their downtempo, which goes beyond beatless drones or spiritual 'mantra' stuff eager to sound enlightened, or whatever.



Solar Fields - Blue Moon Station (flac 465mb)

01 Confusion Illusion 6:59
02 Elevator Sunshine Girl 6:00
03 Cosmic Dessert 5:58
04 Magic Eye 8:00
05 Infection 268-7 8:32
06 Magnetic Air
07 Majestic Feeling 9:32
08 Blue Moon Station (album version) 7:31
09 Planet Zoo 6:59
10 Third Time (A-version) 6:23
11 Swimming With Stones 6:55

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This is an abstract, spacey album. It's full of light, airy, ethereal, and wistful sounds, often changing and difficult to grasp hold of. As they swirl around, moments of stronger intensity and clarity phase in and out. It's a treasure and one of Solar Fields' best, although it's not his most easily digestible. Compared to "Extended", previous albums are somewhat harmless chill-out/psy-chill stuff. It's not "dark" ambient by any means, nor creepy or scary. Simply beautiful music with depth. Highly recommended, a beautiful, if enigmatic album.



Solar Fields - Extended (flac 417mb)

01 Air Song (8 AM Version) 16:39
02 No Answer 9:34
03 Station 5 10:31
04 Winter Sun 8:33
05 Combinations 16:01
06 A Place to Think 5:59
07 Detection (Far and Extended) 12:37

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This could well be considered his Magnum Opus thusfar. Despite that many of his other albums feature well-constructed seamlessness, beauty, and terrific atmosphere, no other inspires me sense imagination as much as this one. Like the first ten tracks are a character's rememberings of home - each representing a different place or event, then the last one represents the fear in actually having to leave it. Speaking non-conceptually, NO other 80-minute album feels as short as this one. It flows so well, and with each track having a very distinct and colorful sound, it's easy to get to know this album and fall into it.

Speaking song-specifically, Time Slide uses the fader aweseomely. Insum is a winding road with no recognizable chorus and definitely feels like a piece of "plot development". Magnetosphere and Stereo Hypnosis are groovy-sweet-metallic songs with fun broken beats. Air Song is just amazing and my favorite song of his. It is also a good example of the way Solar Fields can use progressions. Cocoon Moon has a sly beat that I can't not groove to, and it wakes me up after Air Song has put me to sleep. But, then Monogram puts me the rest of the way into dreamworld with it's consistency. It flows like calm lake waves. It is so unchanging and subtly soothing, after a while it starts to sound like there's no music playing at all. Times are Good is another very relaxing track that seems very reminiscent of childhood with what sounds like noise from the fair. I love the implementation of acoustic guitar, as well. And Leaving Home is certainly the dark spot on a mostly light-hearted album. The moaning faders are very unsettling, and the introduciton of acoustic drums makes for a powerful finish.



Solar Fields - Leaving Home   ( flac   431mb)

01 Home 4:41
02 Time Slide 5:01
03 Insum 8:23
04 Star Fruit 1:05
05 Magnetosphere (Star Fruit Part 2) 2:44
06 Stereo Hypnosis (Magnetosphere Part 2) 4:08
07 Air Song 12:21
08 Cocoon Moon (Glastonbury Festival 2005 Mix) 10:36
09 Monogram 15:44
10 Times are Good 7:41
11 Leaving Home 7:27


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1 comment:

Peter Tron said...

hi rho,

unfortunately zippyshare is not available within the uk (403 forbidden).