Another great review of The Ruby-Leif, from a local magazine "Out and About":
Arden’s William Fields takes to the ocean on new EP
On his new EP, The Ruby-Leif, Arden electronic composer William Fields lays out an experience containing the unpredictability, calm, danger, and comfort of an ocean. Each song is an individual experience within a larger one. The release opens with the sparkling “Sunwire,” which brings to mind a sunrise. As the song evolves, the beat strengthens and steadies, exploding into beaming echoes of sound and calming down again into a steady piano. Throughout his song-pieces, Fields knows how to keep listeners hooked by waiting for the shift and the change: He knows when to reel you in with the strength and complexity of his music but also when to let you drift along with its simplicities. The interlude “Umber” floats along before being grabbed by “Cairn,” which has a tone of uncertainty and danger most artists tend to avoid, let alone experiment with. Fields takes this feeling and wraps it around a steady grounding beat, never fully releasing it, and ends in static. The big finale, “The Ruby-Leif,” opens with spouts of sound that branch into a singular voice dancing over playful rhythm and melody. The song takes breaths, steadies, slows, stops the beat, brings it back, changes, crackles, and throws itself back into the dance again. And we’re more than willing to hang on for the ride.