The Dream

Fans of the Berlin based Nils Frahm are by now familiar with his beguiling live shows where more often than not fellow touring artists are encouraged to join Frahm on stage – the likes of Rachel Grimes, Rob Lowe of Balmorhea as well as label colleagues Peter Broderick and Ólafur Arnalds have all obliged with fascinating results. It will come as no surprise then that Nils Frahm, an accomplished composer and producer who signed to Erased Tapes in 2009, has extended his collaborative live musings to encompass the recording studio, working for the first time with noted cellist and fellow Berliner Anne Müller to produce 7fingers. 

With their first collective release Frahm and Müller have built a world where modern classical and electronica collide creating an ‘intoxicating and delicious’ collection of songs. Primarily a pianist Nils Frahm provides evidence with 7fingers that he can effortlessly turn electric throwing in loops, samples and glitches to accompany and showcase Müller on cello. Anne Müller, a renowned musician noted for her work with the Wolf-Ferrari-Ensemble, Phillip Boa and recent tours with Agnes Obel, proves an amp musical partner for Frahm. 

As the recognition continues to grow for Nils Frahm’s previous solo piano works Wintermusik and The Bells, 2011 sees a new side to this young talent as he embarks on a detour into strings, symphonies and glitch beats alongside the estimable Anne Müller.



PRESS:

‘The combined talents of wunderkind pianist Frahm and Anne Müller here produce a subtle, seductive chamber music sporadically interleaved with electronic glitches’ **** – Mojo

'Ludwig Van draped in velveteen electronic violence. A record of fractured beauty. A worthwhile venture' (7/10) - Drowned In Sound

‎'Imaginative and surprising collaboration. It teases out goose-bumps in way that alone gives rise to a hope this won’t be the last time we see the two working together' – BBC Music

‘An album that sees headphone electronica, modern classical, and soundtrack music all converge to beautiful, intelligent, often terrifying effect’ Track Of The Day – The Line Of Best Fit

‘One of the most emotionally-evoking neoclassic records of the year’  8/10 – The Silent Ballet

‘7 Fingers is an absolute necessity and will surely stand as one of the better releases of the year’ –  Fluid Radio

‘I can’t recommend it more… Intoxicating and delicious’ – Headphone Commute


Erased Tapes Collection III

Nils Frahm & Anne Müller – 7fingers

Nils Frahm – Ambre

Peter Broderick – And It's Alright (Nils Frahm RMX)

The Bells

Said and Done

Nils Frahm – Said And Done

A collection of Max's recent filmscore work, together with some tracks from the albums which have recently been featured in various feature films.

PERFECT SENSE / David Mackenzie - Luminous

￼
The first full track stream from Nils Frahm's new album 'FELT' which will be released worldwide via Erased Tapes on October 10, 2011.



￼
ORDER it on CD/LP/DL here: http://erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP033
and receive 2 exclusive outtakes and a limited edition postcard.

LIKE and FOLLOW Nils Frahm here: http://facebook.com/nilsfrahm



￼
★★★★ – MOJO | ★★★★ – CLASH | ★★★★★ – MUSO | 9/10 – Drowned In Sound
★★★★ - ROLLING STONE (Germany) | ★★★★★ – WESTZEIT


￼
CONTEXT: Berlin-based pianist Nils Frahm is already a firebrand in the modern classical world, collaborating with contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds and Anne Müller. His unconventional approach to an age-old instrument, played contemplatively and intimately, has won him many fans around the world.

As announced by Drowned In Sound, he finally returns on October 10th 2011 with the successor to his highly acclaimed solo piano works Wintermusik and The Bells. Released on Erased Tapes Records and entitled FELT, the album will coincide with a European tour in November 2011 – a truly memorable and magical live experience.


CONTENT: Having recorded his last album live in a large, reverberant church, Nils Frahm now invites you to put on your headphones and dive into a world of microscopic and delicate sounds – so intimate that you could be sitting beside him.

Recorded late at night in the reflective solitude and silence of his studio in Berlin, Frahm uncovers a new sound and source of inspiration within these peaceful moments:

'Originally I wanted to do my neighbours a favour by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper.’

Captivated by this sonic exposition, he placed the microphones so deep inside the piano that they were almost touching the strings. This brought a host of external sounds to the recordings which most producers would try their hardest to hide:

‘I hear myself breathing and panting, the scraping sound of the piano's action and the creaking of my wooden floorboards – all equally as loud as the music. The music becomes a contingency, a chance, an accident within all this rustling. My heart opens and I wonder what exactly it is that makes me feel so happy.’

FELT creates its own personal microcosm, offering a refuge of tender and honest beauty.

A video for the pre-release single UNTER can be watched here:
http://vimeo.com/13833500


￼

Press reactions to his last album THE BELLS:

'The Bells is a record of astonishing beauty' (8/10) – Drowned In Sound  

'Nils Frahm is poised to become something of a sensation' – The Economist's Intelligent Life  

 ‘Emotionally charged piano music which always errs toward the melodic side of melancholy' **** – Mojo  

 ‘If there’s any justice The Bells, along with his recently released Wintermusik set, will expose Frahm to a wider audience, a demographic with a seemingly insatiable appetite for more prime neo-classicism’ – BBC Music  


TRACK LISTING:       1. KEEP 2. LESS 3. FAMILIAR 4. UNTER 5. OLD THOUGHT 6. SNIPPET 7. KIND 8. PAUSE 9. MORE

OFFICIAL WEBSITES:          

WWW.DURTONSTUDIO.COM
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/NILSFRAHM
WWW.ERASEDTAPES.COM 


Felt

Nils Frahm - Snippet

After releasing Nils Frahm’s two-track solo synthesiser EP ‘Juno’ in a highly sought after 7” edition, Erased Tapes now re-release the original Juno tracks with guest reworks by Border Community's modular synth wizard Luke Abbott and Warp veteran Clark. Both known for their like-minded use of analogue synthesisers in their music, it makes them the perfect artists to rework the originals. Similar to Frahm’s online project ‘Screws Reworked’, where he invited fans to download his solo piano songs to reinterpret them with their own medium of choice, it’s far from being the typical remix EP. Aptly titled ‘Juno Reworked’, it will be released worldwide in the form of a limited 12" Vinyl and Download.

ORDER HERE: www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP049

LIVE DATES:

10.07. LEEDS (UK) – Opera North Howard Assembly Room
11.07. LONDON (UK) – St. John at Hackney 
25.08. AMSTERDAM (NL) - Grachtenfestival
26.09. SEATTLE (US) – Decibel Festival 
06.10. ESSEN (DE) – Swingfest – Weststadthalle
13.11. BORGERHOUT (BE) – De Roma 
14.11. LEUVEN (BE) – 30CC – Schouwburg
15.11. HASSELT (BE) – Cultuurcentrum
16.11. ROESELARE (BE) – De Spil tickets

OFFICIAL WEBSITES:

nilsfrahm.com · lukeabbottmusic.com · facebook.com/throttleclark · erasedtapes.com

Juno

Juno Reworked

Buy 12"/DL

Nils Frahm - For

You can PRE-ORDER this release on Ltd. Vinyl or Digital Download via Erased Tapes:
http://erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP039

And the CD edition from our Japanese friends at Cote Labo:
http://www.cotelabo.com/discography.html



Nils Oliver Frahm + Peter Ray Broderick = Oliveray.

Being musical companions and label mates for years, it was just a matter of time until modern contemporaries Peter Broderick and Nils Frahm would start their first standalone project together.

Oliveray was born in their shared home city of Berlin and will see its debut release Wonders – a nice little collection of eight musical pieces – available on Vinyl/Digital via Erased Tapes and on CD via Japanese friends Cote Labo from December 12th, 2011.


Say hello to Oliveray!
Blog post by Peter Broderick:

I am super excited to announce the debut release from a project very dear to me!
Oliveray consists of me, Peter Ray Broderick, and one of my greatest friends in the world, the incredible musician / producer Nils Oliver Frahm. We’ve been collaborating in many ways these past couple years and traveling a lot together. Now finally we have arrived with our first truly 50/50 collaboration effort entitled Wonders.
It all started when I was asked to create a cover version for my great friends Efterklang. I asked Nils if he’d like to work with me on the project. So one day we got together in his studio and ran through the song (Harmonics) a couple times and then laid it down to tape in the most relaxed way possible – me playing the guitar and singing and him on the piano… We were both really happy and inspired with how easy and fun this process was. We thought you could hear and feel that relaxed atmosphere in the song.
So when our Japanese friends Cote Labo asked us to prepare some kind of release for our Japan tour, me and Nils set aside a couple days to record some music in a similar manner. Without much preconception we just set up the mics and started recording, with an aim to create a short album of half instrumentals, half vocal-based songs. We ran through a few fresh musical ideas that each of us had, improvising along with each other, sometimes just improvising entirely. And before we new it we had a nice little collection of eight intimate pieces of music.
The first official output of what will hopefully be a lifelong collaboration, Wonders feels really special to me. Here comes Oliveray!


TRACK LISTING: 01. Growing Waterwings 02. The Book She Wrote And In The Time 03. Piano In The Pond! 04. Harmonics 05. Hiding Hydiration 06. You Don't Love 07. Just Resign 08. Dreamer


OFFICIAL WEBSITES:   
      
PETERBRODERICK.NET
NILSFRAHM.DE
ERASEDTAPES.COM     


Wonders

Oliveray - Growing Waterwings

A tantalising taste of what’s to come, ‘Unter | Über’ is a rather microscopic affair and yet a record that perfectly captures the last days of summer before winter sets in. The under two-minute song twins must be one of the shortest singles released this year. Recorded on Nils’ own piano in his Berlin studio flat, these are two of the most personal and optimistic pieces of music we have heard in a long time. Entwined impeccably these are tracks you can listen to over and over again.

‘Unter’ received a remix by Dutch experimental music maverick Rudger Zuyderveldt aka Machinefabriek. The A-Side also inspired German filmmaker Ralph Etter to take his camera with him out on a field and shoot a stunningly simplistic video of barley flowing in the wind. Both, the remix and this entrancing piece of cinematography will accompany ‘Unter’ and ‘Über’ on their digital release.

Nils Frahm – Unter

Rising UK electronica producer Max Cooper has announced his second remix EP for 2012, Reconstructions, to be launched at electronica night FIELDS at Electrowerkz, London July 13.

This marks the first time multi-million selling minimalist soundtrack composer Michael Nyman (The Piano; Gattaca; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) has allowed his work to be remixed. It will be released on Sasha’s imprint Last Night On Earth.

The Reconstructions EP comprises two Max Cooper reworks – one abstract, one dancefloor - plus the original of a sparse and emotional Nyman collaboration with songwriter and vocalist David McAlmont, Secrets, Accusations and Charges.	An animated video by regular Cooper collaborator Nick Cobby, filmed with a cast of 20 and an Xbox Kinect, will follow the release.

The original track is drawn from the Nyman / McAlmont 2011 album The Glare, taking Nyman’s theme from the film Gattaca and adding McAlmont’s lyrics inspired by a newspaper story about a quiet suburban Scottish woman who was discovered to be a jewel thief.

As the Gattaca theme is an orchestral piece, both the Deconstruction and Reconstruction are built from samples of only two soundfiles: a track of McAlmont’s voice, and a single track of The Michael Nyman Ensemble playing the Gattaca theme.

Michael Nyman & David McAlmont - Secrets, Accusations and Charges (Max Cooper Reconstruction)

Michael Nyman & David McAlmont - Secrets, Accusations and Charges (Max Cooper Deconstruction)

September 20th marks the 30th birthday of Berlin pianist Nils Frahm, but also the day he has chosen to give his fans a special gift in the form of 9 songs he recorded with 9 fingers, entitled 'Screws'.

Nils experienced an unfortunate accident which saw him fall from his bunk bed located directly above his studio, which resulted in a broken thumb. But through inspiration from his fans and after a gentle walk and talk through the park with a close friend, he decided to deal with the situation in the only way he knew – playing his piano.

With four screws surgically placed inside his thumb, he started recording with his remaining 9 fingers, what later resulted in 9 intimate piano recordings.

Fans can download 'Screws' as mp3s or in full 24-bit 44.100 kHz audio quality here (http://screws.durtonstudio.com), and pre-order a Vinyl/CD edition from the Erased Tapes online store (http://erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP046), which will be released later this year.

'I am sitting in front of a sheet of paper. My right hand is bending over my left thumb. The first day I got out of my cast I could bend it by 15°. Now I am already at 50° and that makes me happy. Things are going uphill...

As you can imagine, it is really bad news for a pianist when he gets diagnosed with a broken thumb. That day I was sitting in the emergency room, feeling rather dizzy while thinking of a zillion shows coming up and all the people involved around it. I realised in that moment how busy things have become. It is hard to turn down interesting projects and opportunities, since I surely love my work. It actually never felt like work. Playing piano and playing it for wonderful people is the greatest joy I can imagine.

For a couple of days I felt like this all could be over. How pathetic. But hey – also feeling sorry for yourself has its place somewhere. All of a sudden I had so much time, an unexpected holiday. I cancelled most of my schedule and found myself being a little bored. Even though my doctor told me not to touch a piano for a while, I just couldn't resist. I started playing a silent song with 4 fingers on my left and the remaining 5 on my right hand. I set up one microphone and recorded another tune every other night before falling asleep.

The day I got rid of my cast I had recorded 9 little tunes. They have helped me feel less annoyed about my accident and reminded me that any good is something I can only achieve, when I am making the most out of what I've got.

Thank you all for listening!

With lots of love,

Nils


9FINGERS North American Tour 2012

09/16 New York (US) – West Park Presbyterian Church 
09/21 Boulder (US) – Cherryvale Studios
09/22 Colorado Springs (US) – The Mesa
09/23 Santa Fe (US) – O'Shaughnessy Performance Space @ Santa Fe Uni
09/24 San Fransisco (US) – private show (RSVP only)
09/29 Seattle (US) – Decibel Festival @ Broadway Performance Hall
09/30 Portland (US) – Classic Pianos
10/03 Mexico City (MX) – Mutek

ERASED TAPES 5th Anniversary Tour w/ Ólafur Arnalds & A Winged Victory For The Sullen

10/08 HAMBURG (DE) – Fliegende Bauten
10/09 PRAGUE (CZ) – Palac Akropolis
10/10 BUDAPEST (HU) – Trafo
10/11 MANNHEIM (DE) – Alte Feuerwache
10/13-14 BERLIN (DE) – Radialsystem
10/15 AMSTERDAM (NL) – Paradiso
10/16-17 LEUVEN (BE) – Stuk
10/18 LONDON (UK) – Hackney Empire
10/19-20 ISTANBUL (TR) – Salon IKSV

PREVIOUS PRESS:

'No. 42 Best Albums Of 2011' -The Guardian
'Felt is a transportative album, a balm for troubled minds.' BBC Music
'Frahm’s hyper-intimate recording technique for the album makes Felt a captivating listen' (9/10) DIS

★ ★ ★ ★ – Popmatters ★ ★ ★ ★ – Uncut ★ ★ ★ ★ – Clash ★ ★ ★ ★ – Mojo

OFFICIAL WEBSITES: screws.durtonstudio.com · facebook.com/nilsfrahm · twitter.com/nilsfrahm · erasedtapes.com

Screws

Buy CD/LP/DL

Nils Frahm - You

photo inspiration by Aela Labbe from her album with the same title.


Old Times Souvenirs.

MICHAEL PRICE - A STILLNESS

Recorded at Phoenix Sound inside the world-famous Pinewood Studios – home of the British film industry and a location chosen by Michael Price as 'a haven for me in a noisy world' – December 17th marks his debut release as the latest addition to the Erased Tapes family in the form of 'A Stillness'; a four-track limited edition vinyl including music sheets and downloads.

Renowned for his work as film composer, producer and award-winning music editor, this small collection of songs shows a more personal side of Price, a chance for him to create music without any scripts and guidelines. 

ORDER 10" VINYL/DL: http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP047

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

'I'm trying to create a small Stillness in a noisy, hyper-connected world. I wanted to make something personal and real, with musicians that I've known for a long time. Usually we've all got headphones on, chasing click tracks and fitting our performances to picture. It was time to get the headphones off, stop all the clocks and ticking, really connect musically and try to capture a moment. To be able to make something intimate and authentic in an often noisy world is a real pleasure.

When I heard what we had, there was only one collection of musicians and artists that felt a natural fit, and that was Erased Tapes. I'd always admired Robert's artistic vision, and the way that he created a nurturing, collaborative environment around the artists he worked with. It's a privilege to be even a small part of that.'

– Michael Price

PRESS:

'The results are simply beautiful. There's a classical heritage on show, but alongside this Michael Price has a gift for simple melodies which pierce through the veneer of the everyday.' – CLASH Magazine

TRACK LISTING: 

1. A Distance
2. A Bridge
3. A Reaching
4. A Tenderness 

OFFICIAL WEBSITES: 

http://www.michaelpricemusic.com
http://www.facebook.com/michaelpricemusic
http://www.twitter.com/michael__price
http://www.erasedtapes.com

Price: A Stillness

BUY 10" Vinyl/DL

Michael Price - A Bridge

"Both Sides Suffer Heavy Losses, But We Faced An Unavoidable Conclusion" is a specially curated selection of our favourite Greek ambient, postrock, postmetal, experimental, shoegaze artists. 
Please listen, share and enjoy. The future for Greek music is bright. 
*Hope, Answers, Fight, Dreamers ... More Hope For Greece*
credits
released 04 November 2012 

Hior Chronik - Starving but happy

Album out now on Erased Tapes. You can order it here: http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP048

'Captivating as ever' – The Wire
'Modern classical raptures' ★★★★ – Uncut
'Superb' ★★★★ – Mojo
'Hypnotic' ★★★★ – Rolling Stone (DE)
'One of the most remarkable albums of his career' ★★★★ – DeMorgen (BE)
'Epic, meditative stillness' Album of the Week – WQXR Q2 Music (US)

ABOUT THE ALBUM:

April 2013 will see Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, the pioneer of Continuous Music, return with his first release on UK’s contemporary music label Erased Tapes. Entitled 'Corollaries', the album was recorded and produced with the help of Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Martyn Heyne and label founder Robert Raths, who decided it’s time to share the great musical legacy of their new found friend. Or as Melnyk put it: ‘Where were you guys when I was thirty?’

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

‘My first encounter with Peter was at the Ambientfestival in Cologne, when I came into the cathedral where he was playing along with Nils. I was amazed and enthralled by the beauty and power of their music. The colours and majesty of the cathedral coupled with their music made it a great experience I will never forget. The music seemed to come out of the great stone pillars of the cathedral and from the very walls. It was an ecstatic moment. And I was so pleased that after his show, Peter came and spoke with me about my music and things, which was so nice since he is a gentle soul. Some time later, Peter contacted me with an invitation to come visit him in Berlin and try creating some music together. 

I arrived in Berlin with some apprehension over what our collaborations would be like. I had not played improvisation with other ambient musicians before, having worked solo for all these past years. So it was such a relief to start playing at his studio and hear his wonderful input. He was adding a beautiful and delicate dust cover of sounds and pearly effects that cast a lovely sparkle over the piano music --- I loved it.  

My piano music was happy with this new dimension of sounds. Peter just felt, in his natural way, the right things to do. It was a thrill to hear Continuous Music in some new clothes! And with the addition of Nils and Martyn, we all felt the beautiful spell of the communal flow as the music carried us into wonderful spaces.’  – LUBOMYR MELNYK

The album artwork was created by American contemporary artist Gregory Euclide, best known for his sculptural relief work and cover art for Bon Iver. Euclide was listening to early mixes of the recordings on repeat whilst creating the two paintings contained in the record, describing his visual counterpart to Melnyk's work as 'a continuous cycle of growth and decay'.

lubomyr.com
erasedtapes.com
peterbroderick.net
gregoryeuclide.com

Corollaries

The Six Day Moment

Lubomyr Melnyk - The Six Day Moment

For more information visit: http://www.klassikakzente.de/recomposed/home 

Some works are so familiar that it is almost impossible to hear them afresh, but that is what Max Richter has achieved with Vivaldi “Recomposed”. This is no mere arrangement; instead Richter has absorbed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons into his own musical bloodstream. At first Richter followed the example of other works in the “Recomposed” series, which re-mix existing recordings, but, he says, “I wanted to open up the score on a note-by-note level, and working with an existing recording was like digging a mineshaft through an incredibly rich seam, discovering diamonds and not being able to pull them out. That became frustrating. I wanted to get inside the score at the level of the notes and in essence re-write it, re-composing it in a literal way.”Richter calculates that, in the process, he has discarded around three-quarters of Vivaldi’s original. He opens with what he describes as “a dubby cloud which I’ve called Spring 0. It functions as a sort of prelude, setting up an electronic, ambient space for the first Spring movement to step into. I’ve used electronics in several movements, subtle, almost inaudible things to do withthe bass, but I wanted certain moments to connect to the whole electronic universe that is so much part of our musical language today.” Other resonances are no less unexpected: Richter describes part of the first movement of his Summer as “heavy music for the orchestra. It’s relentless pulsed music, which is a quality that contemporary dance music has; and perhaps I was also thinking about John Bonham’s drumming. Then, in the second movement of Autumn I asked the harpsichordist Raphael Alpermann to play in what is a rather old-fashioned way, very regularly, rather like a ticking clock. That was partly because I didn’t want the harpsichord part to be attention-seeking, but also because that style connects to various pop records from the 1970s where the harpsichord or Clavinet was featured, including various Beach Boys albums and the Beatles’ Abbey Road.” Clearly, Richter has brought his own frame of reference to the project. As he says, “Vivaldi’s music is made of regular patterns, and that connects with post-minimalism, which is one strand in the music that I write. That felt like a natural link, but even so it was surprisingly difficult to navigate my way through it. At every point I had to work out how much is Vivaldi and how much is me. It was difficult but also rewarding because the raw material is so fascinating.”Just as Richter’s Seasons plays tricks with the way we hear Vivaldi’s original, so it also asks questions of the soloist, Daniel Hope. “Violinists have Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons hardwired in their brain. Daniel is likely to play the original I don’t know how many times in a year, and for him to have my parallel text going on in another part of his brain is a challenge. I think he did a wonderful job. He brought to it a deep engagement with the original, but he was fully prepared to cut this new swathe through the text.”


Spring One - Vivaldi Recomposed - The Four Seasons

Spring 1 (2012)

Download

The music of Christoph Berg is the soundtrack for many moments in my daily life. He is my beloved mate and friend from Berlin and i did this track to feel much more connected with him. Enjoy. 

Field Rotation - Sleepless rework by Hior Chronik

from the unreleased work. reykjavík 2002. 

óðin's raven magic - chapter 3

Peter Broderick's dear sister Heather Woods Broderick crafted this wonderful cover version of his song 'Inside Out There' from his latest album 'These Walls Of Mine'. In his own words:

"How happy I was when my lovely sister sent me a cover version of my song 'Inside Out There' (from last year’s 'These Walls Of Mine') a couple weeks ago!

For one thing, I never imagined this would be a song that someone would cover… but ohhhh do I smile when I hear her sing those words . . . and it looks fuckin’ beautiful . . . all of a sudden it feels like much more of a song than it ever was! She took that little bastard of a song turned it into something magical.

What can I say . . . I love you Heather Woods Broderick! We’ve come a long way since this photo (http://www.peterbroderick.net/?p=349), snuggling with our grandmother. Have a listen!" - Peter Broderick

The original version is available via http://erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP045

erasedtapes.com · peterbroderick.net

The Dream

André