release date: Jan. 26, 2018
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Nils Frahm
label: Erased Tapes - nationality: Germany
Track highlights: 2. "Sunson" - 3. "A Place" - 5. "Human Range" - 6. "Forever Changeless" - 7. "All Melody" (live) - 8. "#2" - 11. "Kaleidoscope"
9th studio album by Nils Frahm, who has released albums on independent English label Erased Tapes since 2009. This is modern classical and minimalism fusioned with electronic, and perhaps with the addition of ambient, although, that may be an integral part of the aforementioned styles combined. It's difficult to label as either part of an experimental electronic genre, or rather think of it as avant-garde within the classical sphere. It's really transgressing the idea of fixed music genres as belonging to either popular music or classical, almost in a "wave versus particle" theory - this is really both depending on perspective.
It's simplistic, and at times truly minimalist but also built using melodic harmonies in a very organic way. And there's an ever-present sensation of ambience, which makes me think of a modern version of Jean-Michel Jarre - at least when thinking of his earliest works - just without traditional synths.
Previously, I have seen Frahm as an artist who makes music that requires ones full attention, but with All Melody he has moved into the hemisphere of popular music where manifestations may be listened to with randomised attention, so to speak. And speaking of manifestations - Frahm was musical composer to the fabulous Julian Rosefeldt film "Manifesto" (2015) featuring Cate Blanchett, in which she brilliantly plays a dozen different characters, and the music plays its very own prominent part.
Perhaps there's some need of sharpened attention when listening to All Melody but that doesn't mean you necessarily need to put on a pair of headphones to absorb the message; however, you may very well do just that and thereby extend your experience. I come to think of Philip Glass - the seemingly repetitious intervals that you meet along the way in most of the compositions here, but also Jarre and a sense of ethereal spaciousness.
Sometimes listening to this album makes me imagine watching an imaginary Godfrey Reggio sequel to "Powaqqatsi" where you're exposed to unexpected lifeforms seen from the flight of a drone, through the eyes of a seagull, or through the lenses of an underwater camera following a herd of dolphins to a secret place in the outskirts of Atlantis.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Drowned in Sound 5 / 5 stars ]
