Nils Frahm is often described as contemporary or modern classical. However the Berlin-based musical extraordinaire is so much more, and has been pushing the boundaries of what is classed as electronic music for quite some time now. With an upcoming show at Manchester’s RNCM this month on the 28th, it seemed like a good time for us at TNG to give you the low-down on this incredible composer.
If this is your first time hearing about Nils Frahm then you should be made aware that taking people by surprise and blowing people away seems to be a humble charm of his. With an impressive body of work already under his belt, his break-out period we would say occurred between 2011/2012 when he started releasing music on the ever diverse Erased Tapes label. Moving forward, his popularity and acclaim increased further last year with the release of his magnificent album ‘Spaces’.
‘Spaces’ brought together a selection of tracks from Nils Frahm’s impressive live shows; cherry-picking the most intimate and wondrous moments from from over thirty concert performances, then piecing it all together to construct an extremely impressive album! Throughout ‘Spaces’ there is so much energy, emotion and life brought into every single moment; Nils asserts himself as a ruling master of improvisation, and you can really feel what the crowd is giving back to Nils as he plays to them. A classically trained pianist (he was tutored by Nahum Brodski, whose own tutor was a protege of Tchaikovsky), he mixes this equally with synthesisers, analogue controllers and all sorts of sounds to bring together a truly unique masterpiece. I truly cannot recommend this enough to music lovers everywhere!
Having given myself a moment to calm down, let’s moving swiftly forward! There’s much more to Nils – his releases are just a small part of his artistry. Recently doing an amazing Resident Advisor Session, which showcased two new songs, it’s clear that part of his essence is conveyed through the medium of live performance. A great way to get introduced to his music and performances, watch it here.
You can also catch Nils Frahm playing live at the Royal Northern College of Music on the 28th October. This is definitely one not to be missed.
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