Nils Frahm at Kings Theater
The neo-classical/electronic musician visits Brooklyn.
“It is one of the biggest mysteries: why do we need music? We don’t physically need it, it is not rational, economical or logical, but it is what makes us human.”
- Nils Frahm.
If Bach or Beethoven could have used a piano, synthesizers, microphones, tape delays, recording mixers and computers, would they have needed an orchestra?
This is often how I think of Nils Frahm’s music. I’m not sure if that’s an entirely accurate comparison - Frahm himself says he’s not a talented composer like the greats - but his music still carries the gravitas of those classic works. His work is usually categorized as neo-classical/electronic, blending acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings, extended techniques and an experimental approach to composing and recording. Frahm says he simply makes ‘instrumental music’.
While I write this I’m listening to Frahm’s 2018 album All Melody. This is the album from Frahm’s discography which first grabbed my attention. I remember being captivated by the warmth and space of this beautiful recording. I learned about the album from a Tape Op interview following it’s release. The music - and the musician - sounded interesting, unlike anything I’d heard of before. That interview starts by interviewer Jeremy Black asking Frahm about the decision to record himself walking into the studio at the beginning of the album. After many listens, this is still one of my favorite details. In fact, the studio itself is a voice here, something that’s usually lost in a world of computers, digital sample libraries, and DAWs. I specifically remember listening to All Melody one night on an overnight flight. I was transported to another time and space. The album is a journey of highs and lows, from minimal solo piano to pounding organ and drum machines to vocal choirs and synthesizers. I’ve been hooked on Frahm’s music ever since.
More on All Melody:
In 2016 Nils Frahm moved into Saal 3 at Funkhaus Berlin, an East German broadcasting facility financed by the Soviet Union and completed in 1956. The room was built for recording chamber music. Frahm believes it’s one of the best sounding room he’s ever heard, noting that we’ve lost the knowledge that these ‘audio scientists’ possessed in that era. Prior to moving into Funkhaus, Frahm had a studio set up in his apartment so now he had an opportunity to dedicate time and effort into building out Saal 3. After improvements were made, Frahm and his team built a one-of-a-kind recording mixer which Frahm said ‘changed the tone of his productions’. Frahm began building the album from bits of jams he’d recorded. He invited other musicians, including percussionists, horns, a choir and more to record parts for his tracks, something he hadn’t tried before. Frahm incorporated his custom-built pipe organ which occupied it’s own room in the studio. Instruments were patched through reverb chambers.
As the liner notes state: Everything you hear on this record has been recorded specifically for this occasion. It is all played or made with real things.
I love the way this album sounds because even though there’s electronic synthesizers involved, it’s real instruments in a great-sounding room. It feels live, too, as if Frahm is performing the album in it’s entirety from start to finish. You can hear the room as the sound resonates across the walls and space.
Watch: In the studio with Nils Frahm.
If like this album, check out Tripping With Nils Frahm, a live concert film recorded at Funkhaus after two years of touring All Melody.
Last Friday I visited the Kings Theatre for Frahm’s performance, a venue the musician called “rare and special”. At 815pm Frahm ran on-stage, put on a pair of gloves and sat down at the glass harmonica perched above one of his keyboards. For just under two hours Frahm played his instrumental music to a sold-out room of quiet listeners. I think it took a few songs for the audience to settle in but later in the set there were moments where you could’ve heard a pin drop. We were all there to see, hear and experience this musician who communicates through his instruments in a way that no one else can.
I was very curious to attend this show. What would it sound like? Frahm usually plays venues which might host classical music, like the Sydney Opera House or the Philarmonie de Paris, so I thought he must like how the Kings Theater sounds. I couldn’t imagine a better venue in New York for this music. I wasn’t struggling to hear anything. There wasn’t a hint of weird resonance or distortion.
Throughout the performance, I closed my eyes and listened. The concert sounded exactly as I imagined it would. I heard the high frequencies bouncing across the enormous ceiling of the theater, the deep low bass notes vibrating my chest. I didn’t need to see Frahm franticly playing keys, adjusting knobs, and switching pedals, trying to guide his orchestra of electronic and acoustic instruments to do what he wanted them to do. He sometimes he sat with his eyes shut at the piano, or banged on the piano strings with toilet brushes. I didn’t need to know exactly how he was achieving all the sounds I was hearing (was he using a loop pedal? is that synth making that sound?). I was there to be present for a musical experience I’ve been imagining for a long time.
Frahm appeared completely focused, pouring sweat, which makes sense somehow. Wrangling a dozen analog keyboards, pianos, drum machines, and effects takes work. Frahm says that he sweats not from the physical exertion but an awareness of struggling with the instruments, fighting them, trying to make it all turn out how as he hears it in his head.1 Frahm manages to coax nuances and resonances out of his instruments in a way that’s emotional and powerful as on the song Briefly. Frahm’s songs never seem to rush toward any sort of horizon, instead letting each sound and note flourish, breathe, grow and collapse, for several minutes before there’s any shift or chord changes, resulting in a hypnotic wall of sound.
The first half of the set was mostly material from Frahm’s last few albums and featured on the live album Paris. After the first medley of songs, Frahm paused to say a few words to the audience and asked us to make some animal noises which he would then record and incorporate into his next piece. Towards the end of the set, Frahm played some older material to much applause, including Hammers, Says, Toilet Brushes and More. At the last song’s ringing note, Frahm stood and bowed, the lights in the theater went up and Frahm received a standing ovation.
I enjoyed the show immensely but it left me wanting more and I’m looking forward to the next. So I’m diving back into my favorite Frahm albums, reading about his work, hoping to learn more. Is he a genius, a virtuoso? The standing ovation certainly seemed like something reserved for only the most talented musicians. I couldn’t help but feel that we were all there because this music does something to us, makes us feel something. At times I find myself moved to tears, or my skin erupts in goosebumps, so I close my eyes and let the music take me away.
Happy listening.
-Keith