Solar Fields – Until We Meet The Sky

The continuous mix and progression over the course of this album is incredible. The title track also reminds me of Glosoli by Sigur Ros, which is a big compliment.

This album is a masterpiece.
At one point I rarely gave it a listen then within the last year I sat down, put my headphones on, closed my eyes and just listened to it.
I was taken away with the emotion and the depth. It came back to the same theme many times and all I can say is it moved me. And, it continues to do so.
Thank you so much.

Challenging New Material from ambient maestro Solar Fields!!
yes this is challenging... After reading many not so positive reviews here, I decided to post a more positive review to give the readers here a more balanced set of opinions concerning this great album.

Many reviewers here and there seem to think that "movements" is like the peak of SF's musical creation, and compare everything that was made afterwards to it. Well, first of all, let me tell you that I don't share this opinion. I see "Movements" as one of the great SF albums, but not one of the bests. for me, it is a little bit too melodic and simplistic. My opinion is that the best SF album is "Leaving Home" because it has a better balance between melody and "structural" - more experimental tracks. And I also find "altered-second movements" to be a more interesting take on the original tracks too. ("movements" is IMO the easiest SF album to listen to, with "origin#01" perhaps).

With "Until we meet the sky" SF has really changed his style, and the least we could say would be "challenging", especially to SF fans that are a lot in the "movements" kinda sound.
But going back to this CD, it is challenging for 3 main reasons:
1- there is an intention of mixing a very cinematic - beatless sound, with moments of melodic intensity. I do agree with one reviewer here that says 'Second Movements' mixed with 'Origins'. That is true.
Some listeners may find it was a successful combination, other may not. but that's linked to the 2nd reason:
2- the visible intention of building continuity -continuously seamlessly mixed transitions between each track- yet trying to "surprise" the listener by blurrying the boundaries of each track, as if the artist didn't want us to really identify each track. Sometimes I do find the track partition a little bit curious... like track 4 that seems to be the end of track 3 (first half) and a new track (second half).... or track 6 "dialogue with a river" that are in fact two tracks in one...
I'm partially convinced by the partition of tracks, I would have probably made it different, but hey, I'm not the artist, and he is challenging me to try to "understand" or "feel" whatever he is doing. The music still sounds great.

3- the new type of sound: here's a very interesting novelty... PIANO !!! (almost?) never heard before in SF's music, this is particularly interesting. Overall, it is as if SF was trying to give a new flavour to his sound, less "electronic", like less "sounds from outer space" - yeah definitevely less "spacey", and more earthly melodic.

So, to sum up: the music is GREAT but the progression (track partition) may be a little bit strange. You could tell that SF is trying to go from the most minimal ambient (track 1) to the most intense epic ending ... but then again, there is no linear progression, there are some intense moments combined with peaceful ones that break this progression.
This albums reminds me a little bit of Shpongle's "nothing Lasts" album, with the idea of creating a continuity of music VS the typical 7-8 track album, introducing also recurring musical themes along the way, etc. The difference would be that in Shpongle you can really tell what are the different tracks, not here (that would be the negative for me, meaning lack of cohesion), but here the idea of recurrent themes is better achieved (piano riffs, etc.), conveying the idea that you have to listen to this album as a whole and not a collection of tracks.
Sure, that is true for all SF albums... but in all his previous, it was important to identify each track as a "moment of cohesion" within the album flow. Here it seems it's less the case. it is true that this album may lack a little bit of "contrast" between each track.

You have in fact like three "moments":
tracks 1-4 the opening; blissful minimalistic beatless cinematic ambient... with the huge novelty of Piano (!!)
tracks 5-9, the ups and downs of calm and intensity; beautiful melodies, confusing progression - track partition. Track 9 : sombrero the highlight of the album.
tracks 10-12: reaching for the epic ending. May be a litte too over-the-top for me in terms of "epicness" (too melodic, too noisy perhaps? yet not unpleasant).

Definitely an album that is worth listening to many times, to give it a change to grow on you, as it is challenging and demanding in terms of attention. Yes, it is a complex and beautiful work of art.
You have to listen to this album as a whole and not a collection of tracks. This is its strength and weakness at the same time (as it is for shpongle 3 too) : it makes the whole album more interesting yet less striking, because it is harder to identify great moments of the album to great tracks.

You're not going to find another 'Movements' here, you're infact going to find something more similiar to 'Second Movements' mixed with 'Origins'. The first half of the album is a blissful ambient adventure. It's beatless, uplifting and somehow reminds me of a few of Kettel's works. The second half gets a bit more intense and sounds more on par with 'Origins'. Here we start to see some of the classic Solar Fields heavy pads, but it just doesn't work aswell as it once did. The songs just lack the contrast we've seen in 'Movements' (maybe that album is just too good?), and it shows. It is still a good album no doubt, you just need the taste buds for it.

Yep, it's like I revisited the Blade Runner Soundtrack by Vangelis. You can see the huge resemblance here.

Not saying it's bad, but strange for sure. Beatless tracks are obviously lacking somthing when i'm comparing to other ambient maestros. Is definetely missing the atmosphere of "Movements", where every single track was an solo trip, but they fit together perfeclty as an album as well. Sombrero is great,but just too short and going nowhere, the same with the some other tracks. I cannot move to meet the sky here, sorry;)

fantastic sound !
Magnus - musician from God (:
track Sombrero - music of higher beings