Pogo, the Field, Atra Aeterna [monday Threesome]

Happy Monday everyone! A couple of weeks ago, I came across what one might call a “YouTube Sensation” by the name of Pogo. His music absolutely blew me away, so, of course, the wheels began turning for the next Monday threesome. This week, we’re bringing you a variety of minimal techno music, where the artists use their talents to create tracks of almost perfect beauty and simplicity.

Over The Ice – The Field // Buy

Back in 2007, when From Here We Go Sublime was released and blew up, techno was neither a style I was familiar with nor one I really cared about. A buddy of mine, though, started raving about The Field and how I had to hear his record. While I initially scoffed at the idea, only halfway through the first track, “Over the Ice”, I was completely hooked. This experience began my spiral into electronic music, a genre that I now follow closely. Axel Willner of The Field is known for his process of creating electronic music by layering incredibly short “micro-samples” with quick loops of live instrumentation. His songs feature a large amount of repetition and are generally very simple, but this only serves to enhance their beauty and make moments when the compositions open up all the more affecting. On newer albums, he maintains his clean, original style, but also adds elements such as vocal harmonies and more complex composition. The artist page at The Field’s label, Kompakt, allows free streaming of most of his songs. Also, YouTube has a live performance of “Over the Ice”, the song that changed my musical brain forever, which features a live rhythm section that gives the song a unique, more organic, sound.

Famous for the edited videos he posts on Youtube, Pogo (@pogomix) is one of the most original voices in modern electronic music. Also known for fusing micro-samples, he usually splices together scenes from movies and television — sometimes these are musical moments, but very often they’re simply moments of speech that he tunes to create music. While this style may seem like a gimmick, the videos are actually just a unique form of expression. Forged with incredible detail, the clip collections (some of which are less than half a second long) are spliced together to form surprisingly beautiful music. Pogo incorporates a wide variety of sounds, from funky to pretty, sunny to contemplative, and he’s an artist well worth following. His Bandcamp page features numerous albums available to stream and one (Weave and Wish) available as a free download. His newest video, a true nostalgia trip, was created from clips of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The music is bouncy and clever but with the same ethereal nature found in all of his music. I can also guarantee that this track will leave the phrase “Arnold Schwarzenegger” stuck in your head for days. Another video, Bloom, which he spliced together from old Disney movies, is truly one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve experienced lately. These final two videos are slightly different stylistically and demonstrate Pogo’s filmmaking skills. They both feature spliced footage of the environment and interviews that he shot and conducted in Bhutan and Johannesburg. The cinematography is gorgeous and very indicative of Pogo’s well-rounded style. Enjoy!

Atra Aeterna (@atraaeterna), the project of Zack Mitchell, approaches minimal techno in a very different way.  Less sample driven and more organic, the songs feature dark and cinematic soundscapes using synths and electronic elements. Mitchell is also a classically trained pianist, though, so keys are also heavily featured in his music. “Monolithium”, off Machinations, for example, begins almost entirely as a solo piano piece, but combines subtle electronic and string touches as it progresses, including a sort of glitch beat towards the end. The way classical sounds and techno combine here is very unique and interesting. As with the other artists, Mitchell approaches his songwriting from a fairly minimal perspective, using heavy repetition and never combining 4 notes when 2 will do. The songs are also Zen-like in their tranquility and loveliness, though Atra Aeterna definitely has a darker, slightly unnerving undercurrent to his music. His Bandcamp page features numerous albums both free to stream and free to download.