NILS FRAHM
Old Friends New Friends LEITER
Reassessment of a kind, 16 years on
7/10
Nils Frahm: a minimal sort-out
Pianist Frahm is a big hitter in the modern classical/ ambient electronic field, known both for his formalism and experimental bent. As its title indicates, his latest (double) LP mixes old compositions (most previously unreleased) with new, the result of a 2020 archival sort-out. Played on different pianos, all are in the minimalist vein and bear his auteurist marks: a delicate beauty, restrained swells of emotion and the apparent creation of an element that’s half water, half air. Old Friends… flows as a set piece but there are standouts, notably a curiously Callahan-like “Then Patterns”, where the pump of pedals is clearly audible, and the Windham Hill-ish “New Friend”.