Official Piano Day 2020 Playlist
Happy Piano Day!

Artwork: Alice Baldwin.

Piano Day 2020 Playlist

Contemporary piano music. Everything I feel like it's worth listening but I try to focus on innovative, strange and moving pieces. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Piano

pianoambulance

Copy of Piano Day 2020 Playlist

Cave

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Incandescent (2021) for piano and marimba

￼
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


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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

From the new album Asperities

http://juliakent.com
http://theleaflabel.com/juliakent
https://www.facebook.com/juliakent.music
https://twitter.com/juliakent

Asperities

Tramontana

This track was created as a homage to Piano Day 2017 and was recorded on the day storm Doris hit the UK. I wanted to write a track that felt affirming in the midst of a turbulent beginning to the year. The track was recorded during the later hours of the day when the storm was receding but a drop or two of rain can still be heard. It's available to download across digital platforms from 24.03.17 xx

You'll Be Okay

Pas À Pas (Piano Day 29th March)

On October 4th 2019, Penguin Cafe released 'Handfuls of Night', the highly anticipated follow-up to their much applauded 2017 album 'The Imperfect Sea' 

Using gut-stringed violins, viola, cello, bass, percussion, upright and grand pianos, synthesiser, harmonium and more, Arthur Jeffes and his cohorts have crafted a vivid series of panoramic sonic landscapes, that are as rich in cerebral poignancy as they are in emotional depth.

Bookended by the atmospheric ambient piano pieces ‘Winter Sun’ and ‘Midnight Sun’, the album traverses glacial minimalism with ease, combining their signature contemporary classical panoramas, such as the melancholic yet upbeat lead track ‘At the Top of the Hill, They Stood...’ and the colossal cinematic piece ‘Chapter’, with the crystalline folktronica on ‘Pythagorus on the Line Again’ — a re-visiting and continuation of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s 1993 Union Cafe song on the principles of harmonics.

'Handfuls of Night' began life after Greenpeace commissioned Jeffes to write four pieces of music corresponding to four breeds of penguins, to help raise awareness for the endangered Antarctic seas . A fundraising evening at EartH in Hackney followed, where Penguin Cafe premiered the four songs named after their feathered counterparts to a sold out audience; the rousing contemporary folk inflected ‘Chinstrap’, the mournful and minimalistic ‘Adelie’, stoic and rhythmic ‘The Life of an Emperor’ and the wistful, string-laden ‘Gentoo Origin’.

“Such is its mastery of slowly uncoiling drama you can almost taste the salt in the breeze" ★★★★ — MOJO⠀
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"Arthur Jeffes' music has a direct clarity. Dramatic swells and sweeps showcase the jaw-dropping landscape. Most importantly, though, the music carries an environmental message, which is a critical issue for this generation" — A Closer Listen ⠀
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"One of their most impeccable moments to date" ★★★★ — Music OMH ⠀
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"Elegiac strides across epic landscapes... Arthur Jeffes is doing the legacy of his father proud" — Prog Magazine ⠀
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"Another winner from this group, with Jeffes and company mixing minimalism, folk music and classical string writing into a charming combination” ★★★★ — All About Jazz ⠀
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"A sensitive, frequently lovely follow-up to 2017’s ‘The Imperfect Sea… Handfuls of Night’ conjures pastoral panoramas and weathered vistas" — DJ Magazine⠀

Handfuls of Night

Midnight Sun

Buy LP/CD/DL

Penguin Cafe - Midnight Sun

#pianoday2020

Taken from the album 'To Believe (Remixes)', released 6 March on Ninja Tune: http://tco.lnk.to/remixesSo

Follow James Heather -
Spotify: http://found.ee/jheather-sp
Apple Music: http://found.ee/jheather-am
Instagram: http://found.ee/jheather-ig
Facebook: http://found.ee/jheather-fb
Twitter: http://found.ee/jheather-tw
Youtube: http://found.ee/jheather-yt
Soundcloud: http://found.ee/jheather-sc

Follow The Cinematic Orchestra -
Spotify: https://found.ee/tco-sp
Apple Music: https://found.ee/tco-am
Instagram: https://found.ee/tco-ig
Facebook: https://found.ee/tco-fb
Twitter: https://found.ee/tco-tw
Youtube: https://found.ee/tco-yt
Bandcamp: https://found.ee/tco-bc
Soundcloud: https://found.ee/tco-sc

To Believe (Remixes)

A Caged Bird/Imitations of Life (James Heather Rework) [feat. Roots Manuva]

The Tears Within Your Eyes

thesisproject.bandcamp.com/album/thesi…artyn-heyne

Ben Lukas Boysen - editing, zen garden.
Martyn Heyne - guitar, organ.

Composed, mixed, and mastered by Martyn Heyne + Ben Lukas Boysen at Lichte Studio Berlin.
Additional engineering by Matthias H. Franz Hahn. Vinyl cut by Mike Grinser.

Thank You!
Gregory Euclide, Matthias H. Franz Hahn, everyone at Manners McDade, Erased Tapes Records & Publishing, Claudia Gödke, and Karolina Zenobia Heyne.

Dedicated to Frieda and Frau Bellmann.

Thesis 16

& Martyn Heyne - June

To mark this year’s 88th day and as an acknowledgement to these unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in, Piano Day founder, pianist and producer Nils Frahm releases a collection of eight solo piano pieces titled 'Empty'. 

Stream and download 'Empty': https://idol.lnk.to/nils-frahm-empty

Conceived of just before Nils broke his thumb and composed the similarly intimate solo piano album 'Screws', 'Empty' is a soothing vessel of eight simple and serene pieces originally recorded as the music to a short art film he shot with his friend and film director Benoit Toulemonde. Drifting through emotions from the stark and sobering opener 'First Defeat', to the gently euphoric 'No Step On Wing' and the contemplative but hopeful closer 'Black Notes', with its poignant minute of silence, 'Empty' is a comforting score for these turbulent times.

“When I came back from the hospital with a broken thumb and listened to the recordings, I felt they were unfinished. I decided to put them aside and started to work on my small album, 'Screws'. 

Many many other notes of the piano have been struck since these days, and before we all forget about this, I thought it would be a good moment to share these lullabies with you. I hope they help you stay all strong and calm in these days of solitude – despite the hardship, we can discover introspection and reflection unexpectedly. Who knows what it is good for.  
 
Much love, Nils”

Empty

No Step On Wing

Stream & order LP · CD

Nils Frahm - No Step On Wing

Kindred piano lovers Peter Broderick and David Allred have gifted the sheet music for their song Hey Stranger, taken from their collaborative 2017 record Find The Ways. Reminding us of the importance and power of friendship, it was originally performed on double bass, with Peter on violin and the two singing together. David kindly recorded this solo piano version to make it easier for you to follow the notes.

www.allredbroderick.com
www.pianoday.org

The Tears Within Your Eyes

Rich Mortimer