Solar Fields – Origin # 02

English / Polish version

Solar Fields - Origin #02
    ULTIMAE RECORDS
    Solar Fields
    Origin #02
    2013

      1. Landform
      2. Mystic Science
      3. Active Sky
      4. Echo
      5. Unknown Presence
      6. Surface
      7. Lifebook
      8. The Missing
      9. Falling Shadows
      10. Asteroid (Time Machine Lullaby)

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– 'If you had to compare the music and climate of Solar Fields to any sort of art (e.g. to a painting, book, film, etc.), what would it be? How could you define and describe your project?’
– 'I guess I would say a dream. You know when you are in that state of mind in the deep sleep where you create your own rules and worlds. Solar Fields is all about creative freedom when it comes to composition. No borders or rules. And this is what it’s all about. I don’t follow patterns of what is going on at the moment or trying to re-create something that I already did, Solar Fields goes way deeper than that. Everyday is a new day and every sound should be a new sound.’

The sentences quoted above come from an interesting interview, which we have made with Magnus Birgersson in 2012. The sound wizard from Sweden, creating for 12 years under the banner of Ultimae Records, in the same interview said: 'I have made some very nice discoveries now on my old hard drives that will end up on ORIGIN # 02. Some music that I completely forgot about.’ And just as he said it has happened in March 2013 – Ultimae Records released a new album, which contains tracks Magnus created over the years 2003-2009, and which have not yet been released. As indicates the number included in the title, ORIGIN # 02 mastered by Vincent Villuis, it is the successor to the album from 2010. Solar Fields decided to share with us the result of his early creative work, and thus we can listen to a mix of the following tracks: ACTIVE SKY and LIFEBOOK (2003), LANDFORM and FALLING SHADOWS (2005), THE MISSING (2006), MYSTIC SCIENCE and SURFACE (2007), UNKNOWN PRESENCE (2008), ECHO (2009) and the last, ASTEROID (TIME MACHINE LULLABY), of which the year of creation has not been specified. If I were to give you some suggestions, which I can characterize and reflect the atmosphere of the latest proposals of Magnus, after a moment’s thought I would swap the key words: genesis, past, memory, and completely separated from the rest – spring, nature, freshness, morning. In the other parts of my review I will try to explain why I have raised such associations.

The same title, the story about the creation of the album somehow have imposed the way of my thinking. First of all, Solar Fields goes back in his imagination to the dawn of the history, the beginning of the world, the origins of its creation, the original material from which life took its beginning. What is more, the music of ORIGIN # 02 is the perfect choice to greet the day in the morning when the first rays of the sun warm our face… I can feel in it the spring breeze that brings the smells of the meadow – the fresh grass with delicate dew drops, some fragrant flowers launching their first buds, the flapping of the insects’ wings. I would be very pleased if I could hear the tracks of Magnus as a background material in a nature, wildlife film, I think that the effect could surprise more than one of us. We know that the sound, its quality, the musical tastes change over the years. Solar Fields while creating the album, which oldest track comes from the year 2003 (10 years since the release date), and 'the most recent’ one – from 2009, might fear that such a break will be a huge gap to the audience. Fortunately, in this case, the sound quality remains the same, and Magnus is not like wine – the older, the better, but he continues to be great as earlier, because during all these years, his music remains the same, at a very high level. Some technical, clean, slightly industrial motifs combine eachother with the delicate, soft, soothing melodies, of which Solar Fields is the master. As usual, also in the case of ORIGIN # 02 Magnus in a sensual way builds music tension and slowly comes to a climax, which we await with the impatience and strikes with a vengeance, offering a bit of progressive sound.

As the Ultimae is known for the great artwork of albums and compilations, while reviewing ORIGIN # 02, I can not ignore this issue. The graphic design (created by Magnus) is, in a word – beautiful. The colours, details, micro and macro photography in the inner layer of the cover are truly amazing images. Unfortunately, I have an objection to the image that was chosen as the theme of the outside cover. In my opinion, it is too industrial, technical, cold and not really fit to the music in the latest album of Magnus, but my opinion is based on the fact that I do not like photos with this type of subject.

In conclusion, as for me, digging in the past for some older tracks of Magnus was a really successful operation. I often hear that we should not go into the past or too far into the future, and we just have to focus on what the present brings, but in my opinion vacuuming the past is a kind of cleansing, treatment, discovering anew. Thanks to this kind of procedure, from the time perspective we can take some important lessons, find out what we did well and what needed the improvement. I often go back to what was before, because it helps me to understand my decisions, experiences, opinions, likes and dislikes. Solar Fields thanks to ORIGIN # 02 gives us the evidence that reaching into the past can be really fruitful.

Once again Ultimae gave me a gift in the form of the latest record, and once again it did not disappoint me. I am happy that Magnus gave the second life to the older tracks and for me, ORIGIN # 02 is the best possible proposal for the spring awakening after a long and depressing winter, which probably we all have enough.
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8 / 10
Kasia