Everyone is waiting in anticipation, discussions and comparisons fill the room, people are drinking the frustration away of wondering what it will be like. We all have an idea… yet for the most part the larger percentage of RNCM’s sold out crowd haven’t seen Nils Frahm live, of course everyone knows his work, that’s a given, but in just a few minutes we’re all going to witness the masterful improviser for ourselves.
It’s about to start now, we can see on the dimly lit stage a plethora of equipment, the focal point of it all being pianos of course, but Nils Frahm is not one to be complacent as we wrote here.
All of a sudden it gets even darker, everything goes deadly silent, so calm you can hear a pin drop, a door shut… out walks a man to the centre stage and the second he does applause shoots through the crowd to welcome him. Nils heartily accepts the warm reception and jokingly plays with the thoughts of the long lost summer just past, without wasting much time though he starts and completely provides!
The inner spotlights focus on Nils as he plays everything from Says and Familiar, to a brand new song he doesn’t even have a name for yet… a really dark, brooding and progressive almost techno track, that captivates the entire audience as the smoke of the stage drifts over the keys while he gives the performance everything.
The night progresses and I dare say that time has flown by, every minute seemingly lost in awe of this profound experience, and it seems like it’s drawing to a close already? As Nils plays the last song, a wanted grief ricochets not once, but twice through the crowd, albeit the second time was a little more jestingly orchestrated by the man himself, nether the less everyone is on their feet giving him a roaring standing ovation!
We’ve definitely not had enough though, no one leaves, the crowd now a mob cheering for more, how could he say no? The applause gets louder and louder as Nils Frahm walks back on to the stage, he asks that for the last song if he can bring on a special guest, the crowd having been fed their want for more readily agree. The answer is Mathew Bourne, another master of improvisation who quickly whips off his shoes to match Nils Frahm sock for sock. Mathew starts, Nils follows and takes over, back and forth they go with a playful spirit between them, the ending result having again brought the crowd to another standing ovation and exceeding expectations.
In complete honesty I’ve had the opportunity to see many amazing gigs but there are only a few people with this kind of kinetic and raw talent that wows people, live performances from Bonobo and Jon Hopkins are but a few of a small bunch of artists in the same league as Nils that stay current, being completely mesmerising from start to finish.
The aftermath on social media has been one of a heavily praised performance, and rightly so, it may be a while before Nils is back in town again, but fear not if you missed out, you can still get acquainted with him as I’m pretty sure there will be more to come.
You can get Nils Frahm’s album Spaces on Erased Tapes now here.
