The Field Essentials

Sweden's Axel Willner fused Kompakt's ambient and techno inclinations on his debut album for the label, stretching loops of pop and R&B samples into yearning, hypnotic tracks on the cusp between club and comedown. (He was surely the first Kompakt artist ever to sample Lionel Richie). Beginning with '07's From Here We Go Sublime, he increasingly folded in elements of shoegaze and krautrock, and '11's Looping State of Mind was a full-band affair. By '13's Cupid's Head, The Field was a solo project again, but his loops had never sounded bigger or more intense.