#4071: With Nils Frahm
German composer, pianist, and producer Nils Frahm joins John in the studio to present his latest record, All Melody, in which he explores sonic worlds of his own invention. Key to creating those sonic worlds is his new studio in Berlin, Funkhaus, built out with new cabling and electricity, and which contains a pipe organ as well as an impressive mixing desk, along with many pieces of analog equipment.
During their conversation Nils Frahm speaks as an old soul, who still has a date-book in which he keeps his appointments, and he regularly uses his “vinyl player” to listen to music without a computer. This is all to say that making analogue sounds in an analogue studio is his preferred way - so that he can prevent the loss of a good chunk of culture as he attempts to realize the soundworld in his head. One where he intends to make a piano sound like synthesizer and make a synthesizer sound like a choir.
In the soundworld that listeners can hear, there is an actual string section and a full choir, plus what sounds like a chorale of horns in addition to synths of all kinds and pianos. Frahm confirms that there was a 12-voice choir who came in to track at the studio but that the horns were a trumpet player and mellotron. Among his enhanced production of a wide palette of textures, it's also worth mentioning that Frahm has achieved synthesizer sounds that have a timeless quality rather than one that might be easily dated (like Tangerine Dream or the keyboard solo in Van Halen's "Jump," for example.)
For this New Sounds, listen to selections from the Nils Frahm's record, All Melody, including those trumpet sounds and choir, on “Human Range,” along with other tunes that might hearken back to Krautrock with their driving pulses, synth beds, and slow chord progressions – “Sunson,” and still other tunes which in which piano riffs are supported by minimalist strings - “Fundamental Values.”
Nils Frahm performs in NYC at the Knockdown Center in Queens on Thursday, March 15, 2018.
PROGRAM #4071 with Nils Frahm (First Aired: 1/25/2018)
ARTIST: Nils Frahm & Ane Mueller
WORK: Let my Key be C [3:48]
RECORDING: 7fingers
SOURCE: Hush Records
INFO: hushrecords.com
ARTIST: Nils Frahm
WORK: All Melody [9:31]
RECORDING: All Melody
SOURCE: ERATP106
INFO: erasedtapes.com
ARTIST: Nils Frahm
WORK: Sunson [9:11]
RECORDING: All Melody
SOURCE: ERATP106
INFO: erasedtapes.com
ARTIST: Nils Frahm
WORK: Human Range [7:00]
RECORDING: All Melody
SOURCE: ERATP106
INFO: erasedtapes.com
ARTIST: Nils Frahm
WORK: Harm Hymn [4:11]
RECORDING: All Melody
SOURCE: ERATP106
INFO: erasedtapes.com
