1. Nils Frahm Live

Anybody who has seen live and heard his recorded material will be aware of the difference between the experiences. Albums such as ‘ ’ and last years ‘ ’ are works of sparse beauty. Built largely around piano and occasional subtle additions they are testaments to space and texture. Dynamic shifts are subtle and rare, the tracks floating together through long gentle melodies. However Frahm’s live show is built on a high energy engagement with his performance space and audience, mixing bombastic blasts of synth alongside aching piano solos. ‘ Spaces’ is an attempt to replicate the experience of Frahm live. It is a live album, but a unique one.

Nils Frahm (born 20 September 1982) is a German musician, composer and record producer based in Berlin. He is known for combining classical and electronic music and for an unconventional approach to the piano in which he mixes a grand piano, upright piano, Roland Juno-60, Rhodes piano, drum machines, and Moog Taurus.

On the one hand there are occasional bursts of audience applause, a reminder that these tracks were not recorded in the isolation of a studio. However this isn’t the recording of a single concert, rather extracts from several in vastly different venues over a couple of years.

• Spaces is the seventh studio album by German musician Nils Frahm. It was released on 19 November 2013 on the Erased Tapes record label. It has been described by Nils as a 'collage of field recordings', and includes music recorded over a 2-year period at different locations using a variety of methods including cassette.
• Exceptional tenth release from Berliner composer Nils Frahm. Combining the tactility of Reichian percussive minimalism with the dreamy early-digital arpeggiated chord structures of someone like Steve Roach, Spaces asserts its uniqueness even more by the sheer fact of its being a compilation of live recordings (check out footage of the guy on YouTube for a truly jaw-dropping experience).

The album is an attempt to capture specific moments, different points in space and time where the audio was dictated by the same performer. When Frahm plays live there is a sense of suspense and interaction, a feeling of spontaneity generated by a three way dialogue between the artist, the audience and the characteristics of the venue. A live album compiled from one show couldn’t have captured the difference in experience from one night and venue to the next.

A feeling of unpredictability is maintained throughout ‘ Spaces’. The lines between what is and isn’t planned are hard to locate. The Opening track ‘ An Aborted Beginning’ is a percussive piece made from Frahm playing his piano like a drum kit, the cavernous echo of the venue giving it a dub ambience. A little burble of electronics begin before the track abruptly ends, an uncomfortable silence followed by awkward applause. Live albums normally try to capture a perfect performance, here there is a happiness to publish joyful public experimentation.

Nils Frahm Live

Later in the album we get medley’s of several tracks together, for instance ‘ Unter-Tristana-Ambre’, the segues between songs sound as if they have been decided on the spot, a feeling of improvising around several ideas at the artists whim. The album lurches through a huge range of styles, more so than on any of Frahms studio efforts. ‘ For Peter-Toilet Brushes-More’ starts with epic blasts of synth before breaking down into another percussive piece made from Frahm playing the piano with toilet brushes. ‘ Said and Done’ is a slow building minimalist composition that sits somewhere between Erased Tapes label mate and. The diversity is unified around Frahms unique sense of melody – a kind of child like simplicity that shines through in both the barest and most epic pieces. It occasionally seems disjointed, lacking the coherence of ‘ Screws’ or ‘ Felt’, but this is an inevitable part of the process of how the album was compiled and the intention to capture the difference in performances.

No live album is ever going to capture the true energy of seeing an artist live, and no live recording will ever have the coherence found on a studio album. Spaces works instead as exactly what its title suggests. A record of a unique artist using his huge breadth of skill to imprint his personality into the spaces he performs in. And with Nils Frahm.

Spaces is an ode to the joy of live performance. It expresses Frahm’s love for experimentation and answers the call from his fans for a record that truly reflects what they have witnessed during his concerts. Breaking the convention of a traditional live album, Spaces was recorded over the course of two years in different locations and on various mediums, including old portable reel-to-reel recorders and cassette tape decks. ‘What I love most about playing in front of people has something to do with a certain kind of energy exchange. The attention and appreciation of my audience feeds back into my playing. It really seems as if there is a true and equal give and take between performer and listener, making me aware of how much I depend on my audience. And since the audience is different every night, the music being played will differ too.

Every space I performed in has its own magic and spirit.’ – Nils Frahm.