Nils Frahm

Nils Frahm – Empty (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:49 minutes | 308 MB | Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Erased Tapes

To mark this year’s 88th day and as an acknowledgement to these unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in, Piano Day founder, pianist and producer Nils Frahm releases a collection of eight solo piano pieces titled Empty out now.

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Nils Frahm – All Melody (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:00 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Erased Tapes

While a whole generation of musicians seems to have adapted to nomadic composition, often between two dates in a plane or in a tour bus, there still are some that like the quality of studio production. Whatever the most-seasoned chamber producers may say, the surroundings are a major factor in the success of a recording (ask Ben Frost or Midori Takada). When other people release maxi CDs every two months, Nils Frahm, German virtuoso of the electric (or sometimes not) piano, took two years to imagine and build his “dream studio”. He put it in a place steeped in history, the Funkhaus Berlin, former headquarters of the East German public broadcasting that was transformed into a studio and concert hall facility. Nils Frahm has thus taken residence in Saal 3 to patiently build a pipe organ that you’ll hear emerging from the first tracks of the disc, like this profession of faith The Whole Universe Wants to Be Touched. With this seventh album which, track after track, makes us dive once again with delight into his oneiric—and almost subaquatic—world, the German pursues his quest for perfection, which he knows to be unreachable. “The music I hear inside me will never end up on a record, as it seems I can only play it for myself. This record includes what I think sticks out and describes my recent musical discoveries in the best possible way I could imagine.” We certainly want him to keep trying…

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Nils Frahm – All Encores (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:13 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Erased Tapes

Nils Frahm announces the release of Encores 3 on 20 September 2019, the third and final instalment of his Encores series. The three EPs will be available as one full length release titled All Encores featuring 80 minutes of music on 18 October, to follow his masterful 2018 album All Melody. Whilst Encores 1 focused on an acoustic pallet of sounds with solo piano and harmonium at the core, and Encores 2 explored more ambient landscapes, now Encores 3 sees Nils expand on the percussive and electronic elements in his work. ”The idea behind All Encores is one we had from before All Melody; to separate releases each with their own distinct musical style and theme, perhaps even as a triple album. But All Melody became larger than itself and took over any initial concepts. I think the idea of All Encores is like musical islands that compliment All Melody.” Moulded during All Melody but refined by his live performances, All Encores is testament to Nils’ exceptional ability to craft his art on stage. Artificially Intelligent which showcases his ‘mad professor’ organ, and All Armed which has been a live favourite for some time, appearing on set lists since 2015, are now available to hear on record for the very first time. The final track of Encores 3, as well as the whole series, Amirador, perhaps aptly nods to the Spanish word for ‘lookout’ and hints at what’s to come.

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Nils Frahm – Music for Animals (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:06:40 minutes | 3,38 GB | Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LEITER Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

Nils Frahm returns with an expansive new album, ‘Music for Animals’, his first fresh studio material since 2018’s ‘All Melody’ and 2019’s associated ‘All Encores’. Containing ten tracks and clocking in at over three hours long, it’s an ambitious and compelling set different to anything Frahm’s released to date – in fact, it finds the Piano Day founder declining to use a piano – but at the same time retains many of the qualities that have set the influential musician’s work apart over much of the last two decades. Unfolding at an unhurried, meditative pace in a celebration of tone, timbre and texture – and thus of sound itself – ‘Music for Animals’ offers an unusually immersive experience. ‘My constant inspiration’, Frahm explains, ‘was something as mesmerising as watching a great waterfall or the leaves on a tree in a storm. It’s good we have symphonies and music where there’s a development, but a waterfall doesn’t need an Act 1, 2, 3, then an outcome, and nor do the leaves on a tree in a storm. Some people like watching the leaves rustle and the branches move. This record is for them’.

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Nils Frahm – Streichelfisch (Remastered) (2005/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:19 minutes | 745 MBGenre: Modern Classical, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LEITER Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

Nils Frahm’s ‘Streichelfisch’ is one of three albums of rare early recordings, many of which have been unobtainable for years, some of which have never been released at all, and none of which have ever appeared on streaming services. All the three records of early works reveal a fascinating glimpse into an era of Frahm’s work known until now only to diehard and longstanding fans. Though he first enjoyed success with 2011’s ‘Felt’ and the following year’s ‘Screws’, both performed on solo piano – which he’d studied throughout his youth – the instrument played no part in his early recording career. ‘Streichelfisch’ returns to vinyl for the first time since its original 2005 pressing.
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Nils Frahm – Electric Piano (Remastered) (2008/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:36 minutes | 688 MBGenre: Modern Classical, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LEITER Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

Nils Frahm’s ‘Electric Piano’ is one of three albums of rare early recordings, many of which have been unobtainable for years, some of which have never been released at all, and none of which have ever appeared on streaming services. All the three records of early works reveal a fascinating glimpse into an era of Frahm’s work known until now only to diehard and longstanding fans. ‘Electric Piano’ contains seven tracks originally released as a download in 2008.
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Nils Frahm – Durton (Remastered) (2006/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:19 minutes | 805 MBGenre: Modern Classical, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LEITER Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

Nils Frahm’s ‘Durton’ is one of three albums of rare early recordings, many of which have been unobtainable for years, some of which have never been released at all, and none of which have ever appeared on streaming services. All the three records of early works reveal a fascinating glimpse into an era of Frahm’s work known until now only to diehard and longstanding fans. Though he first enjoyed success with 2011’s ‘Felt’ and the following year’s ‘Screws’, both performed on solo piano – which he’d studied throughout his youth – the instrument played no part in his early recording career. ‘Durton’ pairs tracks from 2006’s digital only ‘My First EP’ with five previously unheard compositions.
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Nils Frahm – Solo (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 42:46 minutes | 785 MB | Genre: Experimental
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: ErasedTapes.com | Front cover | © Erased Tapes Records

2015 album from German pianist & composer, recorded on the world’s largest piano as an improvised single take with no overdubs. During its best moments it brings to mind some of the work of Harold Budd, where melody and mood become two sides of the same coin. (more…)