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Ni-dra
Solar Fields has been one of my all-time favourites for years. He just doesn't seem to disappoint me in any way, and I have all of his studio albums and the three RGB compilations. I've been picking everything up on CD and vinyl from Sidereal as well, I'm really glad his older music has been getting remastered because the newer mastering tech makes such a massive difference to the sound. I have a few of the original Ultimae versions on CD as well and I'm definitely keeping them as sometimes it's nice to go back to the oldschool sound they had all those years back.
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SysLocal
Now that I've had some time to take it in, "Formations" is... okay. I like it more than "Ourdom". Consistently pleasant enough throughout for the most part. But all of it sounds simultaneously too short and too long. Too short as I feel there were a lot of ideas that weren't utilized to their full potential, and too long as nearly every track has sections that feel like padding.
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Alejandro240492
I like the latest album, it is relaxed and calming, but without being boring.
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georgieMT82
"Formations" is his first album that I find actually boring. Sometimes less is more and he needs a break.
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IOIIOIIOIIOI
Interesting. In my opinion his tracks are getting harder to connect to (in terms of tonality and complexity). For me they feel less catchy (striking exception: star carnival).. Nonetheless I like his latest work very much. It just takes some extrarounds of listening to grab it, to dive into it.
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sadnigga2001
Ourdom is like Biosphere's Patashnik, it will always be breathtaking, for years to come
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SysLocal
They've all been super clean to the point of sounding clinical. Very unbalanced and unnatural sounding, sucking all the life out. You know how when you rise in elevation your ears clog, feel uncomfortable, and everything sounds off until you pop them? That's how a lot of the remasters sound. Threw together a quick A/B comparison with random tracks https://soundcloud.com/syslocal/mastering-comparison/s-sQiqYl1Cwyh The Earthshine ones are particularly bad
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SysLocal
Hol Baumann (Olivier Orand) too. Part of me wonders if there was some contractual reason to remaster after leaving Ultimae, but Solar Fields still has the originals on his bandcamp available. And that wouldn't explain why Aes Dana felt the need to remaster as well unless it was licensing/distribution related. idk
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IOIIOIIOIIOI
I'm pretty shure the reasons for all those remasters are about distribution rights and streaming proceeds. I think I've read a interview with CBL talking about this. Btw: can anybody tell what's the story behind the big artist exodus from Ultimae?! Just remember a year when Ultimae was boycotting (or they were banned?) Ozora. In the following events Ultimae seem to completely fall apart. But never heard about the reasons for what was happening.
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AtopTheHill
Now a few months have gone by and I still love Origin #03 just as much if not more. As was written below by someone else, the drums are more pronounced on later SF albums and the later albums are also less psychedelic, but that's a good thing in my book. The best artists aren't content with pumping out the same record for 20+ years, they're not content with becoming stagnant in their sound, and Magnus is among the best of artists. If anything, him changing musical direction somewhat and still being this awesome is testament to his greatness as an artist. I think, with the increased presence of drums, that his sound has moved closer to that of CBL (albeit perhaps less psychedelic) and how could that possibly be a bad thing? Magnus was never best at making trance music no matter how many may say they're his best albums, he's best when he creates melodic beautiful downtempo with endless depth to the sound. Luckily, he too realises this which is why he's only made 2 true trance records
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Palladin1982
It's yet another masterpiece. I, too, prefer his slower and deeper records over the trance pieces which I find somewhat repetitive. And Origin #3 is anything but boring. It continues to amaze me how he can create 8, 9 minutes long songs where there is still some progress, development, advancement, something interesting going on. He's not just recycling one idea over and over. Sometimes I feel sad when one of my favorite songs is over not even realizing it took 9 minutes. "Going In" or "Reborn" from Origin #1, "The Missing" from Origin #2 or "Departure From Within" and "Sidartsian" from latest release are pure gems. There is one important thing though if you want to fully savor his music. You have to concentrate, focus just on the music. Don't have it as background music for another activity as reading or surfing the net. It can be "used" that way, sure, but the strongest experience demands whole man.
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AtopTheHill
Definitely, his music is worthy of the listener's full attention, it's not background music, it wants you to pay attention and it can handle repeat listens from even the most pedantic of audiophiles. I still sometimes find new little melodies or other things in songs I may have heard 10+ times that I had previously missed, that really is the beauty of SF's music. His greatest strength though, in my opinion, is his sense of melody and atmosphere. I obviously don't know, but I get the feeling whenever he writes a song he starts with a beautiful little melody he came up with in his head and then builds the song around that. I'll never understand how the man manages to be so productive, releasing music every year or every other year, when all of his songs seem so polished, so worked on, so perfected.
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sadnigga2001
Just felt like posting again how great Ourdom is. Holy cow, it's the kind of album that takes you on a journey from start to finish (think of "Biosphere - Strata" kind of album), every song has a meaning in the composition and it flows like a river down the mountains. Sadly many producers are releasing compilations of their own tracks and calling them artist albums. Thanks Magnus for existing
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OldWhore
Нравится мне Solar Fields за то, что сидишь, чилишь, растекаешься под протяжный эмбиент и в один миг случается особая магия: трек преображается, наступает драматичная, качёвая кульминация, после которой хочется сказать ВАУ от неожиданности. Новый Origin#3 и трек Response на нём напомнил мне за что я люблю этого музыканта. Funeral for the abandoned и In The Nowhere тоже хороши.
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AtopTheHill
Magnus' Origin releases have always been woefully underrated imo, they're honestly some of his better work, and this is the best Origins yet. Probably my 3rd or 4th favourite of all his releases, after Until We Meet the Sky, the OST for the original Mirror's Edge and possibly Movements (it may also be better than Movements, I haven't decided yet). It's a shame so many people still have the major Movements boner and can't get past that, it's a good album but come on, it's just as overrated as the Origins releases are underrated. There's nothing special about Movements, not more than usual for Solar Fields. That ofc means it's still a special and brilliant album. And while I'm ranting, Ourdom is also way better than some give it credit for. It just takes multiple listens. I don't think there is an artist or band out there that is more consistently excellent as the years go by than Solar Fields, I really don't. He hasn't made a bad album, only less good ones
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sadnigga2001
Not sure about the Origins, but bloody oath: Ourdom is an absolute masterpiece of an album, from start to finish.
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Draxerra
So true about Ourdom. I actually didn't think I liked it that much on my first listen, but after a couple of listens, I've truly grown to love that album and it's probably one of my favourites from Solar Fields now. And yeah, Movements is great and all, but Magnus has so many other albums that are of the same quality. He really doesn't have any bad releases.
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Alejandro240492
"Ourdom" is really awesome and incredible. Solar Fields hadn't left me speechless since "Random Friday".
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sadnigga2001
Whenever Solar Fields drops a new album I know it is going to be my fav of the year. Ourdom is just that. Seriously, cannot get enough of it. It is deep, creative, emotional, ethereal, sublime, all of that and even more. Have you noticed how detailed the textures are in this album? Solar Fields, thank you once again for pushing the boundaries of ambient and trance music to where they were not thought before!!!
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misterpockets
Ourdom is so good. I can't stop listening to it. It is a seriously amazing piece of music. And as someone else observed, put some headphones on and really listen to it, from start to end. I think this is his most mature and fully realized album to date. So layered and deep and moving.!
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Woodawgy
New album is a grower. First listen I was a bit underwhelmed (nothing really jumped out at me except for Mountain KIng) but now I can't get the album out of my head. Totally different experience when I listened to it in its entirety with a nice set of headphones and being in a total relaxed state. Lots of subtle notes that you might not pick up on as background music. Take in those slow buildups and then enjoy the rush of euphoria when the pace picks up.
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AtopTheHill
Meh. My expectations for any new Solar Fields release are always astronomical, and rightfully so. By Solar Fields standards it's a garbage album, which means it's a solid but somewhat uninspired album
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Kalebeefcake
It is not an album that jumps out and grabs you like some of his others, but I love it for the atmospheric quality to it.
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MaxOfS2D
I definitely think there are two periods to Solar Fields, one before and one after Movements from 2009. I prefer the 2001-2009 albums, they make such masterful use of "spacey" noises, textures, atmospheres, and manage to weave a melody without one really being there, whereas the later albums ARE melodic directly, if that makes sense, and that, in my eyes, tosses away what made Solar Fields unique. I really feel that Reflective Frequencies nailed it out of the door, and from there on out it was a bunch of amazing albums that culminated into the Mirror's Edge 1 soundtrack, which, in some ways, was kind of a "best of", that went back and re-explored the broad spectrum of all past albums: the more organic instruments of Leaving Home, the psytrance of EarthShine, the spacey ambients of Blue Moon Station / Extended, etc. hopefully you see what I mean.
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SysLocal
Completely agree! I've always felt that each consecutive album has been less sci-fi/futuristic and more 'down-to-earth' and straightforward so to speak. There definitely was some type of tonal shift around Movements. ¶ The Mirror's Edge soundtrack really showcased all of Magnus's diverse sounds, styles, and then some. ME has been the only work to feature such powerful glitched up breakbeat. ¶ Catalyst is the first work of his that I actively don't like as a whole. I can’t fault him for it since it /is/ a commissioned work after all. I'm curious to see what his next album will be like.
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MaxOfS2D
Yeah, exactly. IMO the best way to point it out is to compare Leaving Home + Extended, to Movements + Altered 2nd Movements. Both are albums that revisit the first, in much much slower and progressive fashion, but Altered 2nd Movements is, to me, pretty boring, because it almost completely lacks all the details, noises, unique textures, atmospheres etc. that made Extended interesting despite how drawn out some of the tracks were. (Altered 2nd Movements is maybe the worst album in his discography—relatively speaking). Whereas Extended is honestly brilliant in how far it can carry itself with seemingly so little (and it is in fact not so little, it thrives in subtleties)
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SysLocal
(late reply, sorry :P) I'm not sure if the comparison between Extended and Altered is appropriate. Altered is a remix album while Extended was its own thing. But I definitely agree on your opinion on the albums themselves. || Altered was a weird release. At the time Ultimae was promoting it as "more than just a remix album", but really it's kind of /less than/ a remix album with how stripped back it was. Movements had great remix potential and Altered was just 'eh'. Honestly I'm wondering if Magnus was dealing with something at the time because the whole album has a depressive atmosphere to it (which again is weird compared to the source material). Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Altered, but it's just kind of 'there' for me. || As far as future releases go he did an interview with Future Music Magazine detailing some of his production process that features a track off his upcoming album ( /watch?v=4Pz1jXpdZgY ) Sound pretty promising to me so far~
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Juckey
My thoughts exactly. If you take for example "Insum" and "Falling Shadows" tracks, the first one is full of layers (which I like) and latter one is much more straightforward and tame (which I don't like). Although the post-rockish apporach in his recent albums isn't my kind of jam, I still respect him doing things the way he wants and not recycling the same soundscape in every new release like many other electronic artists usually do.
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TheArrow1987
Now I have his first 3 albums. Reflective Frequencies sounds spacey often, Blue Moon Station a little bit more psychedelic and Leaving Home sounds futuristic. LH is really like you leave your home to an unknown place in the far future. But I put the title track on 4th position (before Star Fruit) and not as a closing track. With the title track I am finally leaving and the following songs are like what I experience in the new world.
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georgieMT82
Are you all deaf or what? Catalyst soundtrack is an outstanding piece of music! Especially "Rezoning District" and "The View District" are among the best songs that Solar Fields ever made...
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AtopTheHill
Ahh yes, people who have different opinions of course must be deaf, because your opinion is obviously the only right one
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IOIIOIIOIIOI
For the beginning: how about starting with a google picture search for 'solar fields' :P?! ... https://www.google.de/search?q=solar+fields&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjs47CgKrXAhWF_aQKHfVkDpsQ_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=900
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IOIIOIIOIIOI
Btw you can even pull a picture itself to the searchbar to find similar graphics: https://www.google.de/search?sa=G&hl=de&tbs=simg:CAESpwIJJwc0qjRvVY8amwILEKjU2AQaBAgVCAkMCxCwjKcIGl8KXQgDEiWEC5YLiQSCCwCBCxbqFRKHC8gixyK0KqMqtSqiKrs3vDfJIrEqGjD1KZdP7EMCruq3DTB9IHQsWGfRGsZHlQFucyVNYLAWKxmYb_1VVKk9Aa4qgtCmqJxIgBAwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBAnaUJkMCxCd7cEJGokBChYKBHNhbmTapYj2AwoKCC9tLzA5OWZ6ChYKA3NredqliPYDCwoJL20vMDFicXZwChgKBm5hdHVyZdqliPYDCgoIL20vMDVoMG4KFgoEZHVuZdqliPYDCgoIL20vMDI2ZGQKJQoRbmF0dXJhbCBsYW5kc2NhcGXapYj2AwwKCi9tLzAzZDI4eTMM&q=solar+fields+sol&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwidmZWPgarXAhUSDOwKHbqyAcoQsw4IRQ&biw=1920&bih=900
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benxander
You own Magnus' work on CD? That must have cost a fortune! I've only listened to parts of Catalyst, but I really thought it sounded more in-line with the rest of his discography - more 'psy/ambient'. I always thought that the ME OST was very uncharacteristic of Magnus' oeuvre (I suppose it's similar to Earthshine). I definitely see how Catalyst is more non-descript though, it blends into the background.
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SysLocal
@benxander I'd usually buy at least 3 album when I ordered from Ultimae to save on shipping so it didn't cost too much (except Extended which I bought second hand :P ). You're not wrong on ME sounding different than the rest of his disco. It's more overtly breakbeat/tech compared to anything else he's done. So I can understand how it'd seem Catalyst is more stylistically similar to his other works, but I think that's where the similarities end. To me /a lot/ of Catalyst sounds compositionally uncharacteristic of Magnus. Like the sound design is Solar Fields, but the melodies and rhythms aren't. Lots of rather cheesy harmonics, and untrippy straightforward beats. Simply put, I think it /sounds/ commissioned, if that makes sense :/ I don't really blame Magnus though considering he was working with such mediocre source material. Catalyst lacks a well defined aesthetic that the original had and I think that reflects in the soundtrack.
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IOIIOIIOIIOI
I absolutely agree. It's simply a remittance work. Technically well done and I'm pretty shure it is working very well in connection to the game. But's it is really missing the heart and soul of a regular SF - release.
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SysLocal
I'm aware of the dynamic natural of the OST (I played the game), but I don't think even that was executed well. The way the music filtered every time you leapt into the air was distracting at best and many places had music playing where silence would've been stronger. I feel like all of this is more on DICE than Solar Fields though. (All my opinion of course :P)
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marcinbinczyk
The ME:C soundtrack is 5 hours of non stop awesomeness, seriously legendary stuff. Too bad it's attached to such a mediocre game.
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AtopTheHill
Yes and no. Yes, Catalyst being mediocre is DICE:s fault, it's just uninteresting. But you are laughably wrong when you claim EA is all sunshine now. I mean, look at Battlefront II coming out. Sure, also DICE, but don't FOR A SECOND claim EA had nothing to do with the decision to implement microtransactions. You can't say it's "most of the time the developer", it depends completely on what's making the game bad. If it's poor story or gameplay then sure, blame the developer. If it's about business decisions (like removing things from games only to include them for payments later) then it's the publisher and EA is still the worst in the business when it comes to milking us for money
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AtopTheHill
And "like always"? Dude, are you fucking insane?! The first game was great, Battlefield 1 is fantastic...In its best moments DICE is one of the finest developers out there. Perhaps THE finest when it comes to first-person experiences
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