Nils Frahm – Paris 2LP

Description

Limited repress. Recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris and one and a half a year after releasing his magnum opusMusic For Animals— described byPopMattersas “a musical waterfall of monumental proportions” —Nils Frahmshares a new live album on his Leiter label. In what’s becoming a tradition, it follows 2013’sSpaces, a Pitchfork Album of the Year taped at shows over the preceding 18 months, and 2020’sTripping With Nils Frahm, also released as a film.Parisis Frahm’s first live album from a single night, March 21, 2024, and contains ten tracks over a running time of 84 minutes. Frahm’s performances have always been known for expanding upon his studio recordings, and Paris is no exception. Drawing on his substantial catalogue, the German composer and producer reworks tracks fromMusic For Animals(“Right Right Right” and “Briefly”) before less recent material from 2009’sThe Bells(“Some”), and 2012’sScrews(“Re,” originally recorded with just nine fingers after Frahm broke a thumb). There’s also “Spells” fromAll Encoresand “You Name It” fromDay, while the brand new, luxurious and strangely gripping “Opera” sets the stage for “On The Roof” from his heart-rending, award-winning score for 2015’s widely acclaimed, one-camera, one-take German thriller,Victoria. Frahm’s instrumental range has expanded to include a mountain of vintage synths and keyboard instruments. These include a custom-made organ as well as the final glass harmonica constructed byGerhard Finkenbeiner, a master glassblower who, in the 1980s, resurrected the instrument — first invented byBenjamin Franklinin 1761 — and then died in 1999 in mysterious, still unresolved circumstances. Frahm’s grasp of dynamics and tension has likewise expanded, and not only does he reinvigorate his work during concerts for this wider range of possibilities, but he also keeps developing it as he tours. If he leaves the stage to the same uproarious jubilation with which he was initially greeted,Parismakes it clear why he’s been so in demand.Parisis a vital document of this ingenious, gifted musician’s endless pursuit of fresh perspectives.