lensblog

At first glance, the two topics seem to have no connection at all, to most people, but to folks like myself and a few others out there, one is the cure for the other…

I’ve always loved synthesizer music. I remember, as a wee lad, my folks buying a 4 CD boxset – Atmospheric Synthesizer Spectacular -  for me (which I still have and play now and again when I’m feeling nostalgic). I remember losing myself for hours on end, listening to covers of well known 80’s groups and artists, featuring mostly movie soundtrack themes like Dune and Beverley Hills Cop.

That led me to listen to many of the artists’ original works and so my fascination with synthesizer and electronic music in general began. Back then, the range of artists available was limited to the likes of Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Tomita and Vangelis. These days, you have artists like Magnus Birgersson aka Solar Fields added to their ranks.

I first encountered Magnus’ work in the soundtrack work done for EA’s Mirror’s Edge – to be more specific, in my hunt, at the time, for extra information and downloading every conceivable trailer I could get my hands on, I noticed at the end of one of the ‘official’ trailers, mention of remix work done by Solar Fields and then a website URL. I browsed to the site and while I didn’t find much regarding ME there, I bookmarked it nonetheless as something of interest for later.

A while later though, while browsing emusic.com (thanks to Dave Warner from Dave’s Lounge Podcast for pointing me in that direction) for more music to download (I have a basic membership allowing me to download 30 DRM-free songs a month), I found Solar Fields under the electronica section. So I downloaded the latest album, Movements…

Now, the music in ME is very much up my alley. Soft ambient tracks here. Slightly harder synth tracks there. It all depends on the setting and what is about to happen to you. I could listen to it for hours (and sometimes do, now that I’ve unlocked all of them in the game).

Movements follows on that and leaves me with chills running down my spine and goosebumps all over my body… it’s that good! I have had it on repeat now for more than a week and I still can’t get enough of it.

Now, traditionally I’m a headphone-man. And as such, I tend to buy myself relatively decent headphones, be they earbuds or full-earmuff types. My one main criteria is decent bass and depth of sound. If music starts distorting, I get frustrated.

Sitting here at the office, listening to tracks like “Sol”, I can forget about the arguments, the politics, the piercing shrill sounds of desk- and cellphones ringing, as the music thrums and soothes my frazzled nerves. I can feel myself drifting away on an electronic ocean where I need only close my real eyes and open my mind’s eye to visualise the soundscape that have been so beautifully presented to me.

Now, as I said, I’m an earphone fan… but that is not to say that I don’t have a decent set of speakers at home, or that they’re incorrectly setup to enjoy music like this… it’s just that more often that not, my time in the lounge is so limited, due to the hours I work, that I often just collapse on my bed at home and lie there listening to music via my laptop until I fall asleep. However, the other night, I played Movements through the 5.1ch Dolby hi-fi…

All I can say, is WOW! What a difference. Such depth. Such range. It feels like the music reaches out and encompasses you.

I look forward to next month when I can download some more of Magnus’ work. And I’m keeping an eye out for the official Mirror’s Edge game soundtrack as well.