Nils Frahm - Felt

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A1 - Keep
A2 - Less
A3 - Familiar
A4 - Unter
A5 - Old Thought
B1 - Snippet
B2 - Kind
B3 - Pause
B4 - More

Note: videos may not match the album...

5...according to our Phil on Thu 06 Oct, 2011.

The Nilster is back with a brand new studio new album on Erased Tapes and it's the difficult 3rd album! From the off I can tell it's a much richer album than previous albums as there's more than just piano on it. The opener with its Tubular Bellsy xylophone is really rather splendid. There's also a few samples and some field recordings (from the sounds of it) on here so there's plenty moreto feast your ears on. It's still an introverted listen and you're probably going to want to listen to this on your own as you'll get more out of it(Nils says that it should be listed to on headphones as that's how it was made). There's still the 'Hamlet' moments when you'll want to curl up in front of a log fire with a glass of wine and a huge cigar (don't burn yourself or get too pissed for that). It's essentially a maudlin sounding piano album though so if you like party music you're best looking elsewhere. The star of the album is the final track 'More' with its frenetic piano and xylophone combi where they sound like they're trying to outrace each other. In the background there's some really warm sounding bass which brightens the sound even more and it's by far the more uplifting piece on the album. It's a beautiful piece of music and worth the price of entry alone. I think this is his most realised work to date and one I think you'll definitely need to spend some time with.

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CONTENT: 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.' CONTEXT: Berlin-based pianist Nils Frahm is already a firebrand in the modern classical world, collaborating with contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds and Anne Müller. His unconventional approach to an age-old instrument, played contemplatively and intimately, has won him many fans around the world. As announced by Drowned In Sound, he finally returns on October 10th 2011 with the successor to his highly acclaimed solo piano works Wintermusik and The Bells. Released on Erased Tapes Records and entitled FELT.

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