Glacial crescendos, cascading melodies and shuffling beats, Nils Frahm blurs the line between neoclassical music and eclectic ambience to deliver a 2-hour-long masterclass at The Glasshouse in Gateshead.
Nils Frahm is going through the final moments of his sound check. His drum machine is pumping out a steady beat alongside a sumptuous synth. It’s just about audible over the rising murmuration of several hundred bar dwellers and gig goers attending tonight’s sold-out show.
There’s still over an hour to go until the stage doors open, yet there is a healthy stream of people meandering into The Glasshouse – all of whom are eagerly anticipating what turns out to be a bold, spellbinding set from an artist at the peak of his powers.
A nostalgic aroma fills the stage prior to Nils appearing. The subtle sounds of crackles, hisses and pops usher in a reverence to the venue and Nils’ glimmering glass armonica whirls while simultaneously spitting out warm, golden glimmers of light into the air. The stage setup feels complex and holistic yet totally natural.
Dressed monochromatically, Nils takes to the stage, bows his head to the audience and unassumingly takes to the left-hand side of a two-station setup that features analog instruments. He begins the set with a whispy, glacial track that is reminisce of a Cold War espionage scene – immediately inducing the mind to a calming, melancholic state. It’s nearly 25 minutes later until Nils bring his opening act to a gentle close, before picking up his microphone to greet the crowd with humour and insight.
He speaks softly, moves effortlessly across the stage and exudes humility. It feels intimate, like a familiar friendship. It’s unusual to feel this closeness. After all, this is a world-class artist who has soundtracked Ad Astra, sold out 1 80 performances across the globe for his album All Melody and is now booked for 6 consecutive shows at The Barbican this summer.
Nils glides purposefully to right-hand side of his setup where is surrounded by synths, tape delays and drum machines. There is a commitment to the melodrama from Nils from this point – he is a subtle showman who uses his body to express the tensions, the energy and the emotions that is intricately woven in his music. The second half of the set blurs the lines between classical, minimalist and temporary ambience, although it feels a disservice to level those characterisations at Nils when he’s floating in his own musical stratosphere. Boundless, limitless and untouchable throughout – his chest rises simultaneously with euphoric string sections and his shoulders ebb along with his feet to reverb-laden beats that shuffle rather than thud.
His brain is always a step ahead of the music, anticipating every key change, every foot pedal stomp and clockwise turn of the pitch bender well before it’s needed. It is so mind-blowingly intricate and precise that it feels like a cheat code, yet Nils looks so natural when in full flow. While Nil’s dense, multi-layered music pulsates and soars at break neck speeds to the point it may seem untameable once he arrives at climax of a song, he moves comfortably at his own pace – creating vivid ambience that veers from glacial worlds to tonal, moody and textured close-quartered settings.
As Nils closes his set, there is a gorgeous sense of transcendence swirling around the room – the audience is in a serene moment where Nils’ exquisite use of flutters, ticks, sprawling chords and textured loops have infiltrated the subconsciousness and left the crowd asking for More, the title track of his final song before disappearing backstage.