The Field

At the intersection of ambient, techno, shoegaze and pop lies the music of The Field, a.k.a. Stockholm’s Axel Willner. Born in Sweden, Willner grew up on ’80s punk before discovering leftfield electronic music and atmospheric guitar bands in the mid-’90s. After joining Cologne dance powerhouse Kompakt for Things Keep Falling Down (2005), he perfected his sound with his debut album, 2007’s From Here We Go Sublime, smearing all of his influences into a dreamy, pastel-toned wash punctuated by steady kick drums. (He even found room for a few sneaky samples of glossy ’80s Top 40.) The Field’s sentimental warmth helped introduce that era’s minimal techno crossover to indie listeners worldwide, and he leaned into his melodic instincts on 2009’s Yesterday and Today and 2011’s driving, Krautrock-influenced Looping State of Mind. As suggested by the uniform cover design of The Field’s many albums, his music has remained faithful to the same essential template—but a formula so satisfying hardly needs tweaking.