German composer and musician Nils Frahm is often categorised as an ambient musician, but this does a huge disservice to the sounds that he creates.
This week Perth Festival audiences were treated to a stunning performance from Frahm as he visited Western Australia for the first time.
For this year’s festival a new space has been created at the East Perth Power Station. The monolithic building that’s stood vacant for over four decades has been surrounded by life, lights and festivities.
Inside the structure is still off limits, but snuggled into the sides of the building a performance space has been created. It’s always powerful to visit a location we’ve never seen performances in before but being up close to this bold structure that most of us have driven past for years while admiring its shapes is really something special.
The main auditorium created for the festival is under the bare structure, its skeletal bones making a striking backdrop to embrace the audience. The solid metal wall of the main building encasing us a world of sound and light.
Since releasing his debut album in 2005 Frahm has followed it up with a massive amount of music, his sixteenth album Paris came out last year, so did its predecessor Day. Alongside this there’s been EPs, one-off tracks, collaborations and compilations.
Frahm has worked with many notable artists including F.S. Blumm, Peter Broderick, Olafur Arnalds and DJ Shadow. Through this he’s built up a sizable fanbase, so it was a packed house at Wedesday nights show.
The stage is simply lit, but it’s filled with equipment, an upright piano, an organ, various keyboards, is that a xylophone? Boxes with levels and dial, switches and meters. We’re here for some music, but equally this could be mission control for a journey to your inner consciousness.
The artist takes to the stage with a smile, he blesses the audience with a splash of water and performs the sign of the cross.
The performance begins with Frahm creating sounds from (if my research is correct) a Nebula Euphone. It’s an instrument made up of glass rods and you play it with wet fingers. It creates haunting, beautiful and ethereal sounds that take on the first step of a journey that visits many sounds, emotions and styles.
Frahm spends time with one instrument before seamlessly transitioning to the next. As time goes by it becomes more complex, he reaches out to another keyboard, one hand playing a second instrument. His hands crisscross, he leans over to adjust a fader, fire off another element, he adds another layer, morphs into another sound, another instrument.
The music is building. You could label it ambient, but equally jazz, borderline techno at times, but then it will change again and be positively classical. Wherever Frahm took us – it was always beautiful. Each number is epic, 15 to 20 minutes.
After s short chat with the audience, he explains the next number requires the crowd to make sounds like animals. He’ll record the noises and then loop then back into the work he’ll perform next. I really want to know how this has rolled out in other countries, because asking a packed audience of Australians to make animal noises created a cacophony of screeches, woops and yahoos. But Frahm took that sound and transformed it into another stunning piece.
As he delivered his multilayered compositions it was hard to believe that there was just one man on stage. How could a single person make all this sound? His work followed motifs that were repeated and adjusted, building with emotional ebbs and flows. His hands darting over the piano at breakneck speed. Pure brilliance.
Perth Festival has its final shows this week with Joseph Keckler, Jordan Rakei, Camille O’Sullivan and PJ Harvey, as just a few of the artists visiting out city.
Find out more.
