Solar Fields - Origin 1

1. Silent Waling

2. Unite

3. Bigger Stream

4. Almost There

5. Next Waiting

6. Embraced

7. Going In

8. Automatic Sun

9. Reborn

10. OCT

Yet another Solar Fields album hits the shelves, or perhaps better put, yet another Solar Fields album is hitting the letter slits in various places around the globe. Did we have enough? There has been a lot of Solar Fields lately and sometimes you just have to take that last piece of cherry pie, I mean it looks so tasty, then you end up feeling ill cursing your gluttonous nature. Luckily for us this cherry pie was one of those made of yoghurt, meaning you can eat as much as you want without having to experience the consequences of your actions.

This is not new material from our dear friend Magnus, it's a collection of tracks produced under a time spam starting ten years ago. Having that said, this means that there is no “real” connection between the tracks, unless you make one up of course. It could always be argued that if there is some track lacking cohesiveness with the rest of the album, really there is nothing wrong with the album, it's YOU being out of place. So it's not a psybient album in the ordinary sense, but neither is it an album with just ten separate tracks good for listening each on their own . As with all the music coming out from Magnus, this is very profound music, and it's not easy to get a good listening experience, this is something I think has been a red line throughout all Solar Fields albums, there are exceptions of course. Namely Unite(T2), which is something out of the ordinary, and to understand what I mean and you are sitting with your cheap headphones by your computer or ipod, don't bother, this track needs a real hifi system to get this baby running. If I would describe unite with a quote, I'd do it with a quote from (peace be upon him) Terence McKenna, “It's very much like riding an enormous roller coaster, once that baby rolls out of the station, do not stand up, do not try to climb out of your car, shut up and hang on with the faith that most people have lived through this”. Another great example of a Solar Fields “stand alone” track is Little Green Cubes, on some compilation I don't remember. I think this is something that is very prominent with Magnus's music, many albums can seem dull and boring, almost unimaginative, until you pop the cd into a high end stereo system. He truly is a sound designer.

Being a mix of different tracks from different time periods there is a lot of diversity on the album, for good and bad, some might interpret tracks like Bigger Stream(T3) as odd and out of place, and I can understand that, but it's not a bad track per se. On the other hand tracks like Almost There(T4), and Silent Walking(T1) is very Solar Fieldesque, this track would fit perfectly on a more thought through album. And yes the lack of direction on the album does hurt the album as a whole although not the individual tracks. The composition, production and all that is great, and I don't think anyone would have expected any less. To me there is only one bad track on the album and that is OCT(T10), and I don't really see how this track passed the quality test.

I have mixed feelings about this album, there are great tracks on it, superb even, and some not so great although none bad except the last one. But the album leaves me with a wish that Magnus had taken the better tracks, maybe worked on some new ones and tried to make a new psychedelic journey altogether, there is obviously material for it on the album. Still it's far better than most music out there so I shouldn't complain. I guess I'll just take Leaving Home for a spin and relive the good old days.

The album can be found at Ultimae's website