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I first came across Three Fields when I reviewed a track called Chorus Synth as part of my 'Hovering Up The Random Sounds' here. There were some quality sounds amongst those numbers, but Chorus Synth was the pick of the lot, so I needed little persuasion to review the entire album when it headed this way. I'm not disappointed either as from the moment the opening track Aurora commences, it was apparent that Chorus Synth was no one-off.
Aurora opens with a piano playing a simple motif over a lush sounding synth before some whistling-like effects provide a slight whiff of Morricone's Lloyd George theme. It really is rather lovely, and yet, despite its undoubted beauty, there's also something a little unsettling about it. Chorus Synth follows, and although it appears to be a slightly different version, I can totally understand why I raved over it a few months back.
Isolator then opens with a deep bass noise and has a more funereal air, like some of the darker moments on Moby's Everything Is Wrong album. Low Grey Sky, with its more aching quality, has a touch of the Ghosts (Japan) about it whilst Interland has a slightly ominous feel. Above, meanwhile, pit-patters away like rain on a window before a repeated keyboard riff (that's slightly reminiscent of a part of Tubular Bells) finally makes its entrance. The short title track flutters way like a dragon-fly for less than two minutes before With Piano closes the album. A lone repeated four note piano run plays before being joined by other instrumentation including a pretty glockenspiel-like noise. It reminds me of one of my favourite Julian Cope numbers, Head Hang Low, for a reason I can't quite put my finger on. I guess it's that word beauty again!
I'm also guessing that Three Fields grew up listening to the likes of Vangelis but he (yes he, not they!) has definitely hit upon his own musical identity here. The album hangs together really well and works both as background music and, better still, turned up and listened to in its own right. An impressive work that deserves to be heard.
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