It's been a while since Saul Stokes' last solo CD, 2001's Abstraction. That disc, cobbled together from live material, was a living mass of curling wires and tones, splayed out in complex patterns and rich atmospheres. Since that time, we've heard a greater focus on rhythmic work from Saul, exemplified by Thermal Transfer (with Vir Unis) which operated in quasi-techno pulsescapes. It's a great disc, rather like orbiting a distant planet at great speed, waiting for an inevitable fiery decay into the atmosphere. And what Sci-fi dork doesn't like a disc with a track titled "Replicants in Orbit"?

And now, Fields. From first listen, it is apparent Stokes has taken the length of time necessary to push his signature style forward, creating a completely new and fresh perspective on the hand-built synth sounds we'd heard on prior efforts like Outfolding. Though previous albums focused more on inspired, improvisational synthscapes, Fields is aligned to a composed, rhythmic style only hinted at before. One need only listen to the first few moments of "Noise Coast" to find Stokes operating with melody and texture approaching musicality from a completely different direction than before. "Noise Coast" features lush synthbursts that subtly oscillate, leaving sonic afterimages throughout the track. This is Stokes announcing his arrival into the new millennium.

Track two, "Furioso" begins in a downtempo manner with snappy percussion and an urban sounding synthwhine--this is as close to jazz as Stokes gets, featuring a pretty piano backed with some expansive synth. There's also a strange ball-bouncing effect way in the background that reminds me strongly of the final track on the Namlook/Biosphere collaboration Fires of Ork 2. Track four, "Imiye" is a standout, with close-to-real drum sounds, gorgeous, billowing synths, and twanged melodies--all the while accompanied by those intriguingly odd hand-crafted synth sounds. The next track "Iris ... My Observatory" is familiar, having appeared on last year's Portraits compilation. I never got a chance to review that disc, so here's my chance to at least touch on a part of it. For me, "Iris ..." sums up Saul's recent work. Still the fascinating synth sounds, but with greater concentration of downtempo grooves, and a new luster that seems to be derived from ambient or minimal techno. The end of "Iris ..." has a melody that is melancholy and joyful all at once--and isn't this the effect all of the best music has on us? "Fields," the title track, in turn sums up Fields, the album, beautifully. The double meaning of "fields" comes into play, where Stokes conjures up both thick green vegetation surrounding, and a bright cityscape dotted with visible electric motion. So many ambient/electronic works have a tendency to focus on urban dystopia, but Stokes has a positive, naturalistic outlook which is quite refreshing. Perhaps it was not his intention while creating Fields, but Stokes has enabled a type of musical urban renewal; all bright gleaming buildings and clean, busy streets. Suddenly the city around took a brighter, uplifted tone as I listened to the CD in midtown Manhattan. This uplifted tone gradually floats higher, into "The Bright Tones (Even Brighter)." Here is the culmination of the album, a lengthy track with still more positive, progressive rhythmic ambience. And that sequence at the end is just fantastic, really ending the CD with a blissful soar across the glowing skies of the megalopolis, headed for more celestial terrain.

Throughout the record, Stokes plays with unusual rhythms and off-kilter melodies; all while remaining quite listenable. In fact, this is some of the most "mainstream" electronic music I've heard out of the Hypnos camp thus far. I wouldn't be surprised if this music appealed to a broad spectrum of electronic fans, and not just us dyed-in-the-wool ambient junkies. The sounds are so well produced and lush they are almost tangible. Every detail is easy to separate from the rest, never descending into a murky sonic mess. Honestly, I just love everything about this album, which represents, for me a perfect blend of abstract electronics and luxuriant ambience, not to mention the intoxicating corona of near-IDM percussives. Stokes has crafted a gem here; one I'm steadily hitting the repeat button on, nearly three weeks later. In its way, this is paradigm-shifting work; I hope to find other artists branching outside their chosen styles, taking what they need, and crafting new forms accordingly. Exemplary work from a major talent.

Hypnos wears the pants, but this disc's in the Binary pocket. And Saul's got an attractive site with sound samples.

since July 15, 2003