After releasing Nils Frahm‘s previous two albums Wintermuzik (2009) and The Bells (2010), as well as an Unter | Über EP (2010) and a collaborative release with Anne Müller titled 7fingers (2010), the UK based purveyor of modern classical, IDM and post-rock, Erased Tapes Records prepares for a new installment from one of the rising stars of intimate piano music, titled Felt, scheduled for a release on October 10, 2011 (pre-order album). Frahm’s delicate piano pieces will delight fans of Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds, Goldmund, Library Tapes, Dustin O’Halloran and Max Richter. Really looking forward to this one!!
Here’s Snippet from the upcoming album
Behind the beauty of the album, lies a concept worth quoting here in its entirety:
Having recorded his last album live in a large, reverberant church, Nils Frahm now invites you to put on your headphones and dive into a world of microscopic and delicate sounds – so intimate that you could be sitting beside him. Recorded late at night in the reflective solitude and silence of his studio in Berlin, Frahm uncovers a new sound and source of inspiration within these peaceful moments:
‘Originally I wanted to do my neighbours a favour by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper.’
Captivated by this sonic exposition, he placed the microphones so deep inside the piano that they were almost touching the strings. This brought a host of external sounds to the recordings which most producers would try their hardest to hide:
‘I hear myself breathing and panting, the scraping sound of the piano’s action and the creaking of my wooden floorboards – all equally as loud as the music. The music becomes a contingency, a chance, an accident within all this rustling. My heart opens and I wonder what exactly it is that makes me feel so happy.’
Read Headphone Commute’s Two and a Half Questions with Nils Frahm
