Looping State of Mind

From the classic minimalism of Steve Reich to the tape-based systems of Robert Fripp to modern-day minimal techno, loop-based composition has always concerned itself with the paradox of a music built on subtle, ever-shifting repetitions. Looping is inarguably the creative engine that drives Swedish-born Axel Wilner, and Looping State of Mind, the Stockholm-based producer's third album as The Field, perfects the technique with a set of gorgeous, trance-inducing soundscapes. Whereas The Field's 2007 debut, From Here We Go Sublime, was crammed with brilliant ideas but suffered from a spare sound, and follow-up Yesterday and Today (2009) was meandering and lacked focus, this benefits from a beefier, more robust mix, placing the various live instruments and samples into a cohesive acoustic space. Indeed, the psychological divide between that which is considered 'live' and that which is 'canned' is convincingly erased on lead-off track "Is This Power," its swirling, repeating melodic figure sounding less like the workings of a bedroom electronics boffin and more like a lost outtake from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. But the album's furthest departure from typical solo electronica is the stately title track, where droning synths, a chugging guitar, and slithering live drums create an expansive horizon line of sound unmoored by definitive starts or endings.