They All Disappear From View

The Field “From Here We Go Sublime”

Axel Willner isn’t the only electronic music producer who has messed around with glitchy samples, but I think he’s the only one who’s ever made the sound of a CD skipping feel like a symphony. “From Here We Go Sublime” is mostly comprised of choppy, staccato sounds that somehow feel soft and hazy rather than sharp and thudding. Willner focuses on tone and texture, giving you the sound of a voice but no indication of what’s being sung, and extends brief quiet moments into lingering ambient hums.

The amazing magic trick of this song, aside from making a simulation of the sound of malfunctioning playback feel incredibly romantic, is in how Willner reveals the source of that romanticism. Halfway through the track the song builds to a moment when you finally hear a bit of the unobstructed source material: The Flamingos’ 1959 recording of “I Only Have Eyes for You,” one of the most distinct-sounding pop hits of all time.

The moment at 2:14 when you finally hear that heavily reverbed “sha-bop sha-bop” gives me goosebumps every time I play it; it’s like clouds suddenly parting in the night sky so you can get a clear shot of a bright full moon. Willner only gives you a few moments of the original song before altering it again, bringing in the “sha-bop sha-bop” a little faster than your ear expects it, and then slowly pushes the composition back into abstraction before it seems to dissolve in your headphones. The title is accurate – the sound is truly sublime.

Buy it from Bandcamp.