Nils Frahm
The Bells
Release Date: Mar 2, 2010
Genre(s): Experimental, Classical
Record label: Erased Tapes
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Album Review: The Bells by Nils Frahm
Excellent, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Born from an exchange of tapes between Nils Frahm and composer Peter Broderick, The Bells is a record of astonishing beauty. Recorded over two Berlin nights and composed entirely of piano improvisations The Bells is part dare, part triumph. Taught by the student of a student of Tchaikovsky, Frahm’s style is affecting; instilled with a sense of melancholia, he soothes and teases the listener as the record writhes between blackened terseness to a more soothing fluidity.
Based on rating 8/10
German composer Nils Frahm is something of a revelation... Despite the current proliferation of modern classical artists, this latest offering from German composer Nils Frahm is something of a revelation. Perhaps it’s the improvisatory nature of these solo piano pieces which gives them a fluidity all too often absent from Frahm’s contemporaries, or perhaps it’s just down to the immaculate production work from Peter Broderick, but ‘The Bells’ is a consistently fascinating listen.
Opinion: Excellent
Pianist poised to find a wider audience with this set of stellar improvisations. Spencer Grady 2010 To take nothing away from its chief architect, a large part of The Bell’s beguiling power undoubtedly comes from the environment in which it was recorded and the instructive presence of its almost silent partner. The Bells was originally issued as part of wunderkind Peter Broderick’s Kning Disk’s Piano Series and it is Broderick’s involvement here that forms the project’s catalyst.