The Gamble
The pianist/composer Nils Frahm and his childhood friends Frederic Gmeiner and Sebastian Singwald recorded these songs in the 00s in Berlin; a decade later, they dusted off the tapes and edited their improv sessions into these loose-but-lean jams. Krautrocks muscular rhythms and dubbed-out guitars drive Ceramic People; Philip Glass influences the arpeggios of The Invention Mother. Vibraphones and incidental drums fuel the airy atmospheres of Capstan, while Chasing God Through Palmyra and Pink Flirt sink into ambient post-rock. The beats come back on Re:Turn! as Frahms keyboards meet hypnotic grooves.
Nonkeen’s history has always been shaped by the mysterious convergence of coincidence with the band’s steady exploration of as yet unheard sounds. After all, ever since Frederic Gmeiner, Nils Frahm and Sepp Singwald discovered, in their childhood days, a shared passion for rudimentary tape machines, they’ve refused to shy away from letting their music respond to the erratic nature of their recording process. What started as a playground radio show in a suburb of Hamburg, where Gmeiner and Frahm experimented with their cassette players and the noises of their daily environment, soon developed into a long-lasting friendship, and eventually led to the foundation of Nonkeen. The tracks for Nonkeen’s debut album ‘The Gamble’ were recorded between 2007 and 2015, after the band members began to meet again for long experimental sessions, now well into their twenties, and living in Berlin. They listened to their childhood recordings nostalgically, adding parts to some and sampling others. After eight years, an album had grown organically from this process. Nonkeen’s ‘The Gamble’ was first released in February 2016 by R&S Records, LEITER is now re-issuing the band’s complete catalogue.
Composer/producer Nils Frahm's latest album with his childhood trio nonkeen highlights that Frahm is best when he's having fun: proposing limitations but then pushing back against them when the musical moment seems to call for it.
Avant garde classical musician Nils Frahm alongside childhood friends Frederic Gmeiner and Sebastian Singwald embark on a project that overflows with hypnotic melodies.