Tracklist:

1. Prolog
2. Right Right Right
3. Briefly
4. You Name It
5. Some
6. Re
7. Spells
8. Opera
9. Our Own Roof
10. Hammers

Recorded one and a half years after his magnum opus Music For Animalsdescribed by PopMatters as a musical waterfall of monumental proportionsNils Frahm shares a new live album, due for release by his LEITER label on December 6. In whats becoming a tradition, it follows 2013s Spaces, a Pitchfork Album of the Year taped at shows over the preceding 18 months, and 2020s Tripping With Nils Frahm, also released as a film. The latter, arriving in the wake of 2019s All Melody and its 2020 companion, All Encores, was recorded during shows in Berlins grandiose Funkhaus Saal 1, once the largest studio in the former GDRs radio complex. Paris, nonetheless, is Frahms first live album from a single night, March 21, 2024, and contains ten tracks over a running time of 84 minutes Frahms 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 2009s The Bells (Some, also included on 2015s Solo), and 2012s Screws (Re, originally recorded with just nine fingers after Frahm broke a thumb). Theres also Spells from All Encores and You Name It from this years 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 2015s widely acclaimed, one-camera, one-take German thriller, Victoria.

Having first come to prominence with delicate vignettes for piano, Frahms instrumental range has expanded to include a mountain of vintage synths and keyboard instruments. These include a custom-made organ as well as the final glass harmonica constructed by Gerhard Finkenbeiner, a master glassblower who, in the 1980s, resurrected the instrument first invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761 and then died in 1999 in mysterious, still unresolved circumstances. Frahms grasp of dynamics and tension has likewise expanded, and not only does he reinvigorate his work during concerts for this wider range of possibilities, but he also keeps developing it as he tours.

If he leaves the stage to the same uproarious jubilation with which he was initially greeted, Paris makes it clear why hes been so in demand. Hes been booked, frequently for multiple nights, at halls around the world, including Sydneys Opera House, Londons Barbican and LAs Orpheum Theatre. Indeed, the LA Times wrote of Tripping With Nils Frahm, Watching him at work, and hearing the audience react, is a little like watching an athlete at the top of his game. Expect nothing less from Nils Frahm on Paris, a vital document of this ingenious, gifted musicians endless pursuit of fresh perspectives.

A masterful kaleidoscopic mix of music… one of the greatest concert experiences in years. Gaffa DK