Posted by The German composer Nils Frahm continuously creates new ultra visceral soundscapes that beckon transient modalities. His consistent yet dynamic span of remarkable work places him as one of the leading innovators in ambient, classic and electronic genres. He has a bold audacity in his rhythmic pairings, like in his older piano works that evoke such depthful emotive expressions, it almost feels as if Frahm is creating from some distant planet.
His new live album ‘Tripping With Nils Frahm’ follows suit with a methodical cadence that bleeds seamlessly through an orchestral opening into a deep electronic dive with echoing synths and pulsating beats. The acoustics of the performance venue, Funkhaus Berlin, which is where he began his 2018 tour for his studio album ‘All Melody’, create an impeccably balanced and rich sound throughout the album.
One of the most notable tracks for me is ‘Sunson’, coming in at 11 minutes and six seconds it is a full bodied experience that mends and melts beautifully from the quiet and reverbervated orchestral arrangement of the first track, ‘Enters’. There are a few other tracks at this length or longer and it provides an uninhibited space for Frahm to unveil the scope of the song and create a narrative for the audience to become fully absorbed in.
The track begins with a classic and somber piano interlude that he employs throughout his work; it evolves into a crescendo of wooden flutes adding a rich texture and ends with an electronic build and pulsating dancehall feeling with reverbs and echoed wooden flutes. It all mysteriously quickens and is pieced back together in a perfect shape of a sound that offers both curiosity, wonder and solemness.
Frahm is a master at delicately interweaving sounds together that don’t typically live in the same world. He offers this sonic language that really breathes as both prayer, sacrifice and brilliance in a way that he re-births to us what music and sound can truly be. Tracks like ‘All Melody’ and ‘Fundamental Values’ continue in this vein of a wave like experience that oscillates through a myriad of sounds and instruments.
In ‘#2’ he captures a visceral energy and if I close my eyes I can feel the city of Berlin. He captured an innateness of a place, of a history, of a culture; with an unparalleled momentum, built with racing synths, echoed drums and lightning reverb that chase our ears into a dance of running through the night. It is both freeing and haunting at the same time, it seems like there are a million questions in between every note. This track is also longer at a total of 10 minutes and 45 seconds, allowing Frahm to transport and seize the moment simultaneously.
While the art and practice of listening to albums seems to sometimes fall to the wayside of single releases and top track charts, I think this album is a pivotal example of why experiencing an album as a whole body of work in its entirety is crucial. Frahm is an unmatched artist and every track is not only a different story, but at the end of listening to the total one hour and 15 minutes of this album, you are left with a framework of expansive moments, feelings and colours that were constructed from his cosmic and transformative music.
‘Tripping With Nils Frahm’ is an excellent album that not only brings a sense of place as a live album, but fascinatingly articulates the unsaid in masterfully evocative ways.
8/10
Words: Rae Niwa
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