The Field’s New Album Started at a Food Truck in Stockholm

After years away from music, Axel Willner met Axel Boman in a burger queue. That conversation led to his first record since 2018.

Axel Willner, who records as the Field, didn’t anticipate a career pivot when he headed to Stockholm’s Funky Chicken food truck last February. He just wanted a burger. In the queue, he saw another man named Axel two spots behind. It turned out to be Axel Boman, co-founder of Studio Barnhus. The two got talking during the long wait. Boman asked if he had any music. Willner had been silent since 2018, and soon after, he sent tracks that landed him a label deal and his new album, Now You Exist.

That silence followed a string of carefully built records, from 2007’s From Here We Go Sublime to 2018’s Infinite Moment, each arriving with a meticulous, emotional charge. Touring the last one wore him down. “I’m quite shy and I don’t like to be the centre of attention,”