Nils Frahm – Day

Nils Frahm releases his latest album, Day, on 1^st March. In contrast to his extravagant live shows, which can use multiple pianos, organs, keyboards, synths, the occasional glass harmonica and even toilet brushes to play keyboards to envelop the audience in layers of sonic waves and flashes of showmanship, the six songs on this album are simplicity itself. In a stripped-back and intimate recording, it is just the musician and piano that we hear. And we really hear that symbiotic relationship. It lets the listener feel as though they are sitting next to Frahm at the piano, as you hear the mechanical inner workings of the instrument below or perhaps alongside the notes that it produces. You can hear the keys being struck and pedals worked, creaks in the instrument and the ambient crackle of the atmosphere of the room it is being recorded in. This gives it a warm feel that seems designed to chime with being played on a vinyl.

The tunes themselves are delicate, soothing loops of subtlety that take their time to unravel and have an improvisational feel. Highlight Butter Notes is a thing of breezy beauty, while Hands On takes things to a faster, more complex and jazzy tempo at times. The playing leaves a lot of space in between the notes and the structures are repetitive: motifs that are used to a mellow effect. It calls to mind Erik Satie.

It is sophisticated and calming but it might err a little on the side of too calm – as a listening experience, it does not offer anything surprising in its midst aside from the nuance of the recording. The level of detail in any piece of music and its production is a matter of personal preference: the intimacy that’s used here creates a very human experience, with the background noises such as a dog barking on Butter Notes giving a sense of place. However, for those who are easily distracted and overly sensitive to sound, it may be that the detail of all you can hear takes away a little rather than adding to it.

Nevertheless, Frahm is hugely talented and popular, as the already sold-out dates at the Barbican in July attest to, and this is a chance to commune directly with his playing unembellished.