Axel Willner is a Swedish electronic music producer and DJ from Stockholm and currently based in Berlin, best known for his releases as The Field, blending micro-samples of pop songs into atmospheric minimal techno.
Beginning in the early 2000s, Willner produced guitar-based ambient music using multiple pseudonyms (Lars Blek, Porte, Cordouan, James Larsson) through his own Garmonbozia label, and performed alongside fellow Swedish musicians such as Andreas Tilliander, Sarah Nyberg Pergament (alias Action Biker), and longtime friend Johan Skön.
Extensive touring in both Europe and North America supported Sublime, which included appearances at Pitchfork Music Festival, Sónar, Field Day, and All Tomorrow's Parties, as well as select dates with !
[6] While this collaborative approach to live performance and songwriting in some measure recalled his time playing in rock bands, it also fostered a more organic evolution of The Field's ever-expanding sound palette.
[12][14] Willner abandoned any utilization of his laptop during concerts in favor of live mixing with synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines, although for studio production he has kept the Jeskola Buzz freeware that he had used since his earliest recording endeavors.
Rather than adhering to the strict 4x4 techno of his debut, Willner incorporated far more diverse influences for his sophomore outing: Manuel Göttsching and 1970s Krautrock, the disco of Giorgio Moroder, the soundtrack works of director John Carpenter, and minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
[6][7][12][15] Recorded on a remote island outside of Stockholm,[7][15] the studio sessions drew upon Willner's renewed interest in collaboration and thus featured contributions from many other musicians, most notably Battles drummer John Stanier on the title track.
He then joined Cologne Tape, a German-based collective including (among others) John Stanier, Jens-Uwe Beyer (Popnoname), and Michaela Dippel (Ada), whose Motorik-fueled debut entitled Render was released on 14 June 2010, on the Magazine imprint.