Late Night Tales: Nils Frahm - (2xLP Vinyl Compilation)

  • Sale
  • Regular price €39,00
Tax included.


Late Night Tales: Nils Frahm is a mix album compiled by German composer Nils Frahm, released on 11 September 2015. It is a part of the Late Night Tales series of albums released by Night Time Stories.

Composer, musician and producer Nils Frahm steers the new edition of Late Night Tales, set for release on 11th September.
A hypnotic voyage through modern and classical composition, experimental electronics, jazz, dub techno, soundtracks and soul; Frahm's Late Night Tales haunts and beguiles. It’s not mixing, so much as gently layering, like a particularly fluffy goose-down duvet folding in on itself, the folds part of the attraction, the layers part of the overall picture being painted.
Many of the tracks have been edited, effected and re-made. The subtly overdubbed parts on Rhythm & Sound's ‘Mango Drive’ adding to the haunting hypnosis, while choral interruptions aid Miles Davis’ ‘Générique’ on its journey towards the light. Meanwhile, on Boards Of Canada’s ‘In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country’, the tempo is somewhat sluggish, the organs slurred, as Frahm slows it down to a funereal 33rpm that nevertheless fits perfectly. The purring of his girlfriend's cat Cleo transitions playfully between Nina Simone's definitive version of 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' and unearthing the gentle electronics of Dub Tractor.
Eddy Arnold’s ‘You’re The Only Star’, a country tune that sounds like its transmitting from a mid-west diner wireless circa 1947, is straight from the soundtrack to an imaginary David Lynch movie, comforting and dismaying all at once. This crackly reality abounds, as on Finnish band Gentleman Losers’ ‘Honey Bunch’, that adds an unsettling texture, with a sound that is modern but as nostalgic. Frahm's own tracks bookend the mix, opening with an inspired "rework" of the infamous silent John Cage piece '4:33' ("I sat at the piano in silence and worked from there. I listened and took in the atmosphere and this is what came out of it") and ending with a solo piano version of 'Them', taken from his recently released score of the film 'Victoria'. The traditional Late Night Tales spoken word epilogue is voiced by actor Cillian Murphy (Inception, Batman, 28 Days Later), reading a short story by Edna Walsh (Hunger, Disco Pigs).
"I’ve really got off on working on compilations lately. It’s such a wonderful way to delve deep into your music collection. My flat is now crammed with music media of all stripes, from an old hand-cranked 78 phonograph player to 45s and albums on vinyl, my beloved old cassette tape collection, even mini-disks and, lately, WAV and MP3s. It’s all music to me. After spending hours recording from all of these diverse sources, I started to play around with the tunes, layering them, sampling, looping certain parts, extracting phrases and using all the freedom that this allowed me. If I got a little carried away or stepped on anyone’s toes in my quest to do something interesting and original, then I apologise. Some things may have accidentally landed on the wrong speed, while other spooky happening have occurred along the way, whether it’s ghostly additions of reverb and delay or simply subtle edits or reproductions, they’ve all gone into the magical stew I’ve tried to create for your pleasure and edification. I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had creating this compilation for you but, suffice to say, I hope it will be a nice journey for your mind and heart."
- Nils Frahm, May 2015

 



Few artists command the attention of the art-music avant-guard and the experimental fringes of pop music in the way that Nils Frahm does. After playing the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Radio 6 Music Proms this summer, Frahm cements his place as one of music’s most distinctive and influential voices by contributing to the ever-intriguing Late Night Tales compilation series.

Frahm, who is signed to famed experimental label Erased Tapes, uses this compilation to present precisely the eclectic mix of artists you'd expect from someone who makes it his business to dissolve genre and defy convention. In addition to the dark electronica of Boards Of Canada (whose “A Beautiful Place Out In The Country” he re-works for this LP), and the pionerring jazz of Miles Davis, Frahm also pays tribute to the great pianists of twentieth century, whose playing has informed his own work.

Frahm selects Dinu Lipatti's interpretation of Bach's “O Herr Bleibet Meine Freunde, BWV 147” (“Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring”), the piece which both began and ended Lipatti's tragically brief career, cut short by Hodgkin's disease. Vladmir Horowitz's “Flight of the Bumblebee” also makes an appearance, alongside another of the twentieth century's great pianists: Nina Simone. Frahm overlays the spoken-word passages from her “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” onto Penguin Café Orchestra's “Cutting Branches For Temporary Shelter” to create a subtle mediation on the transitory nature of – well, just about everything, really. Frahm does have a sense of fun, though – and he includes a ten second snippet of his girlfriend's cat purring to prove it.

This album centres around Frahm's sensitive reworkings of the material he weaves together in his Late Night Tale; the most audacious of which is his interpretation of John Cage's silent opus “4'33””. Frahm actually plays his for four minutes (he doesn't even reach the titled length of the piece, cutting off the performance to switch to music of the Baka Forest People of East Cameroon).

With this record, Frahm reminds us that music – whatever it's genre, origin, form or status – holds a power like no other medium to represent our shared, human emotional experiences.

By: BestFit.


1 "4:33" (Exclusive John Cage Cover Version) Nils Frahm 3:43
2 "Liquindi 2" Baka Forest People of Southeast Cameroon 3:02
3 Divertimento Für Tenorsaxaphon Und Kleines Ensemble Part 4 Carl Oesterhelt, Johannes Enders 2:41
4 0181 (excerpt) Four Tet 0:48
5 You're The Only Star (Nils Frahm's '78' recording) Gene Autry, Nils Frahm 1:54
6 In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country Boards of Canada 2:44
7 It Was Willow Bibio 1:18


8 Peaks Dictaphone 3:10
9 Flight of The Bumblebee Vladimir Horowitz 1:06
10 Concierto de Aranjuez Miles Davis 3:49
11 It's The Talk of The Town (Nils Frahm's '78' Recording) Victor Silvester and His Ballroom orchestra, Nils Frahm 1:14
12 SK20 System 2:38
13 Mango Drive Rhythm & Sound 3:41
14 Generique Miles Davis 2:58


15 O Herr Bleibet Meine Freude, BMV 147 Dinu Lipatti 4:06
16 The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man Colin Stetson 2:27
17 Cutting Branches for a Temporary Shelter Penguin Cafe Orchestra 1:50
18 Who Knows Where The Time Goes Nina Simone 4:42


19 Cleo the Cat Nina Jurisch 0:09
20 Cirkel Dub Tractor 3:16
21 Honey Bunch The Gentleman Losers 2:22
22 Them (Piano Solo Edit Exclusive Version) Nils Frahm 4:15
23 In The Morning (Exclusive Spoken Word Piece) Cillian Murphy 7:13



Compiled By – Nils Frahm
Lacquer Cut By – F.T.*
Liner Notes – Bill Brewster
Notes
Limited collectors edition.
'Half speed' mastered for optimum audiophile reproduction.
Includes bonus exclusive download code to Nils Frahm 'LateNightTales' mix
as well as unmixed track versions in both WAV & MP3 formats, and 30cm art print.

℗ & © 2015 Night Time Stories Ltd.