Secret Meeting score: 76
by Philip Moss
After a few moments of silence, the first sounds you hear from Nils Frahm’s new album, All Melody, are footsteps, which quickly make way for a chorale (provided by London based group, Shards, and led by composer, Kieran Brunt) of swelling ‘oohs’ – just the first hint that the German classical experimentalist has expanded his musical palette, namely by his decision to involve others. Opener, The Whole Universe Wants to be Touched, then floats into the airy, Sigur Ros-evoking Sunson as Kraftwerkian keyboard bass stabs dissolve into pirouetting flutes.
For two years, Frahm has been slaving away – not just at his piano to create album number seven – but in converting part of the historical 1950s East Berlin Funkhaus building into his new studio: Saal 3- a self contained space where he can bring the figments of his imagination to fruition under one roof. And throughout All Melody, not least on My Friend The Forest and Forever Changeless, the gorgeous acoustics and creaks of the room are as much a star of the show as any of the intricate instrumentations or spiralling vocal arrangements.
As the record drifts through its various movements, the pace, particularly in the middle part of the album, becomes set – at time bordering on monotony – and there are no moments that hit the intensity of Says or Hammers from Spaces (2013), but there is more than enough of interest to keep the ear guessing with its selection of offerings both instrumentally and melodically. Human Range’s flutes grow into a small chorus of softly repeated, hypnotic ‘ahhs’, Kaleidoscope spins through Jean Michel Jarre inspired synth loops, while the title track, All Melody, is a gently chugging nod to Germany’s proud Krautrock past.
One must question, was All Melody built to providing a backing track for moments of solitude and ponderous quiet moments, or to be turned up loud as a dreamy focal point of attention. Either way, it is a record that more than serves both purposes.
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