Review: Nils Frahm - Wintermusik

Nils Frahm – Wintermusik
Sonic Pieces 2009

[tags: piano, celesta, reed organ, instrumental, 2009]

Listen while reading:

Ambre (from Wintermusik)

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Just yesterday I found some really nice music I wasn’t aware of yet. The story runs as following: I was browsing the web for some folk releases and I got lucky: Portland Stories – the new compilation compiled by Heather Woods Broderick that I knew existed but which I had forgotten (you will read about it soon on CFM). And as I checked the label that released the compilation (Sonic Pieces) I found their previous release was from 2009 and I got interested. So I searched for some streaming possibilities and was fascinated after first listening – and that was the point as I ordered my copies of Heather Woods Broderick’s compilation and Nils Frahm’s Wintermusik.

Frahm (hailing from Berlin/Germany) created a wonderful record that was originally intended to be a christmas present for his family. He plays solo and the instruments featured are piano, celesta and reed organ. It’s no wonder that Sonic Pieces realized the beauty of the music and made it available in a first edition of 333 copies (which is now sold out) and in a second one of 500 copies. The record consists of only three tracks but has a total running time of circa 30 minutes.

The opener is a little 3 minutes piece that features some gentle melodies and that mediates a feeling of bright snowflakes falling down right before your window. You can feel the cold coming through the pane a little bit, but you yourself are inside, in the warmth, relaxing and watching. As you watch you sink into some deep reasoning and the winter creeps in with the vanitas motive right on his back in form of track 2, Tristana. Now you are all alone with your thoughts, the falling snow is just like some white noise you’re staring in. Seventeen minutes of thinking, a melancholy feeling takes over your body but you stay calm and you try to sort your thoughts. Sometimes there are moments you think will end in a breakdown, but then you are again the master of the situation. Your head gets colder. You realize your situation and you go back to the fire to warm yourself (that’s track three). You sit down and everything seems to be alright – but one thought stuck in your mind and you can’t let it go. You start to think again and now everything has changed, you can’t get rid of it and so it slowly takes over all your reasoning and you feel some sort of deep resignation and depression take over your body and your thoughts become a whirlwind without an eye. Everything seems to fall down and collapse. But then the 30 minutes are over – how does the story end? That’s your part of the story.

Wintermusik is a great record even though its character is mainly a melancholic one and you won’t get a happy feeling listening to this music (that is besides the happy feeling you get because the music is so good). I highly recommend to spend an ear on this one and to buy a copy as long as supplies last. To do so, click here for a physical copy and don’t forget to visit Nils Frahm’s MySpace.

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