Nils Frahm - Screws (2012)
Nils Frahm - Screws (2012)
1 You 3:08 2 Do 3:04 3 Re 3:50 4 Mi 3:59 5 Fa 2:25 6 Sol 2:29 7 La 3:11 8 Si 3:23 9 Me 2:31 Performer – Nils Frahm
Erased Tapes Newsletter: "September 20th marks the 30th birthday of Berlin pianist Nils Frahm, but also the day he has chosen to give his fans a special gift in the form of 9 songs he recorded with 9 fingers, entitled Screws.
Nils experienced an unfortunate accident which saw him fall from his bunk bed located directly above his studio, which resulted in a broken thumb. But through inspiration from his fans and after a gentle walk and talk through the park with a close friend, he decided to deal with the situation in the only way he knew – playing his piano.
With four screws surgically placed inside his thumb, he started recording with his remaining 9 fingers, what later resulted in 9 intimate piano recordings. ---discogs.com
Composed and recorded after suffering a broken thumb, Screws features nine piano tracks "recorded with nine fingers." Working with limitations isn't new territory for the Berlin-based artist, whose 2011 release, Felt, was inspired by strategies for very quiet rehearsals in a residential space. Unlike Felt, where the quiet pieces were ultimately arranged and electronically enhanced, in places, Screws allows access to very intimate, in-the-moment play, with all of the room sound and piano mechanics preserved in the recording. Most of the instrumentals have a late night/early morning feel, like the weight of a day being dragged along and then cast off. If there's a weakness to the loveliness of the album, it's the slightly repetitive nature of the compositions, and that evidence of the offending injury is all but absent to untrained ears. However, that's a silly quibble. ---Eric Hill, exclaim.ca
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