Nils Frahm - Paris

Recorded one and a half years after his magnum opus 'Music For Animals'—described by PopMatters as “a musical waterfall of monumental proportions”—Nils Frahm shares a new live album, due for release by his LEITER label on 6 December. In what’s becoming a tradition, it follows 2013’s 'Spaces', a Pitchfork Album of the Year taped at shows over the preceding 18 months, and 2020’s 'Tripping With Nils Frahm', also released as a film. The latter, arriving in the wake of 2019’s 'All Melody' and its 2020 companion, 'All Encores', was recorded during shows in Berlin’s grandiose Funkhaus Saal 1, once the largest studio in the former GDR’s radio complex. Paris, nonetheless, is Frahm’s first live album from a single night, 21 March, 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 from 'Music For Animals' (‘Right Right Right’ and ‘Briefly’) before less recent material from 2009’s 'The Bells' (‘Some’, also included on 2015’s 'Solo'), and 2012’s 'Screws' (‘Re’, originally recorded with just nine fingers after Frahm broke a thumb). There’s also ‘Spells’ from All Encores and ‘You Name It’ from this year’s solo piano album, 'Day', 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'.