8pm : A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN (45')
8.45 - 9pm : break
9pm : OLAFUR ARNALDS (45')
9.45 - 10pm : break
10pm : NILS FRAHM (45')
special guest: ANNE MÜLLER – cello
ERASED TAPES RECORDS
Erased Tapes Records is home to Ólafur Arnalds, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Rival Consoles, The B.E.F., Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick, amongst others. It was February 5th, 2007 when the record company was first registered and is now based in London and Berlin.
Erased Tapes has become a meeting point and melting pot for innovative and imaginative musicians who knew there had to be somewhere they could call home. As artist Nils Frahm says, the label is ‘a wonderful place for creating music and I couldn't be happier in this family. And it is a family. There’s a great sense of freedom on this label.’ Positioned deliberately outside the fleeting trends that typify contemporary indie music, Erased Tapes has fostered collaboration between its artists, often fusing disparate musical forms and styles, rendering so-called genres like modern classical, post rock and electronica redundant.
Robert Raths, founder of Erased Tapes, explains: 'I've always been most interested in a dialogue between two opposite poles, between traditional and contemporary, between digital and analogue. That cliff between electronic and acoustic, the pop and the classical world. In bringing these worlds together or at least start a conversation in how to utilise the best of both sides and make it into something exciting, something current and something that is of our time. In the beginning people might have found it hard to connect these dots between each of our artists, but throughout the years I think it has become more and more evident where the label is heading. Lots of good things have happened that I never dared to dream of. That’s what keeps it so exciting for me. And with what lies ahead, I daren’t even think where it might lead…’
Full label profile interview published on Clash.
A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN A Winged Victory For The Sullen is the first installment of the new collaboration between Stars Of The Lid founder Adam Wiltzie and L.A. composer Dustin O’Halloran.
On May 24th 2007, in Bologna, Italy, Adam was on tour and playing with the late Mark Linkous & his beloved Sparklehorse, on what would be their final European tour. That night Adam invited friend and colleague Francesco Donadello to see the concert, and Francesco's guest this evening was composer Dustin O'Halloran (Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ O.S.T.).
Through a strange twist of backstage conversations surrounding passport cache conundrums, and love of Italian gastronomy, a curious friendship began that now has brought forth an offspring of truly curative compositions for the world to savour.
The duo agreed to leave the comfort zone of their home studios and develop the recordings with the help of large acoustic spaces, hunting down a selection of 9ft grand pianos that had the ability to deliver extreme sonic low end. Other traditional instrumentation was used including string quartet, French horn, and bassoon, but always juxtaposed is the sound of drifting guitar washed melodies. The recordings began with one late night session in the famed Grunewald Church in Berlin on a 1950s imperial Bösendorfer piano and strings were added in the historic East Berlin DDR radio studios along the River Spree.
One last session on a handmade Fazioli piano in a private studio on the Northern cusp of Italy, before the final mixes took place in a 17th century villa near Ferrara with the assistance of Francesco Donadello. All songs were then processed completely analogue straight to magnetic tape. Their secret to harvesting new melodic structures from the thin air of existence was for the duo to push themselves to dangerous territory, realising that clear thinking at the wrong moment could stifle the compositions. The final result is seven landscapes of harmonic ingemination. In ‘Requiem For The Static King Part One’ – created in memory of the untimely passing of Mark Linkous – they have taken the age-old idea of a string quartet and then shot it out of a cannon to reveal exquisite new levels of sonic bliss. Of the 13 minute track ‘Symphony Pathétique’, Wiltzie says ‘after almost 20 years of struggling to create interesting ambient drone music, I feel like I have finally figured out what I am doing’. Notable guest musicians include Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, as well asErased Tapes label comrade Peter Broderick on violin. A Winged Victory For The Sullen is not a side project – it is the future of the late night record you have always dreamed of.
The band are currently touring their highly acclaimed, self-titled debut album with great applause.
'GEM' ★★★★ MOJO | 'TRIUMPH' ★★★★ UNCUT | 'VICTORIOUS' – GUARDIAN | 'A VICTORY' – BBC MUSIC 'CELESTIAL' 9/10 – DROWNED IN SOUND | 'OTHERWORLDLY' – PITCHFORK
ÓLAFUR ARNALDS Born in the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsbær, a few kilometers outside of Reykjavík, the 25-year old composer has always enjoyed pushing boundaries with both his studio work and his live-shows. Through relentless touring and determination this young artist has steadily gained recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut 'Eulogy for Evolution'. Ólafur Arnalds’ second full-length album '…and they have escaped the weight of darkness' (2010), continues his mission to lure an indie-generation of pop and rock fans into an emotive world of beguiling electronic chamber music and delicate classical arrangements.
Following in the spirit of Ólafur Arnalds’ critically acclaimed 'Found Songs' (2009) autumn 2011 saw 'Living Room Songs'. This time Ólafur took the idea further and invited the audience into the comfort of his living room, where the songs were recorded live and the whole process filmed. The songs were instantly released in form of a free mp3 download and video stream- straight from Ólafur's Reykjavik apartment. ‘One night I was just playing my piano here in this apartment and I was writing a new song and I didn't have my phone on me which I usually use to record ideas. So I actually took out my MacBook and I didn't want to open like a proper recording program, so I just opened Photo Booth and recorded a video of myself playing the song so that I would remember the song. And I really liked the atmosphere of that video and that's when I thought I should do a series of songs in my living room…’, explains Ólafur.
His first Hollywood soundtrack for Sam Levinson’s feature film debut ‘Another Happy Day’, starring Ellen Barkin and Demi Moore, will see a worldwide release via Erased Tapes Records on February 27. In March Ólafur will embark on his 'Trio Tour 2012' throughout Europe.
'THE INDIE KID WHO KNOWS THE SCORE' – GUARDIAN’S OBSERVER | 'AN ARTIST OF IMMENSE MATURITY' (9/10) – DROWNED IN SOUND |'TIMELESS AND SUBLIME’ ★★★★ – UNCUT | 'HOTWIRED TO THE SOUL' – THE QUIETUS | 'TRIUMPHANT. EVEN AT HIS MOST RESERVED, ARNALDS IS AN ARTIST WHO CAN EXERT IMMENSE POWER WITH THE LIGHTEST OF TOUCHES' – Mike Diver, BBC MUSIC
NILS FRAHM Nils Frahm, born on September 20th, 1982, had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski – a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. It was through this that Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers.
Today Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer from his Berlin-based Durton Studio, where he has worked and collaborated with many contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds, Anne Müller, Deaf Center, Efterklang and Dustin O’Halloran amongst other fellow musicians. His unconventional approach to an age-old instrument, played contemplatively and intimately, has won him many fans around the world. For a musician this early in his career, Frahm displays an incredibly developed sense of control and restraint in his work, catching the ear of many fans including Thom Yorke, who featured one of Nils’ songs in Radiohead’s HQ office chart. As the recognition continues to grow for his previous solo piano works 'Wintermusik' (2009) and ‘The Bells’ (2009), October 2011 saw the release of his most acclaimed album to date: 'Felt'.
Having recorded his last album live in a large, reverberant church, Nils Frahm now invites you to put on your headphones and dive into a world of microscopic and delicate sounds – so intimate that you could be sitting beside him. Recorded late at night in the reflective solitude and silence of his studio in Berlin, Frahm uncovers a new sound and source of inspiration within these peaceful moments: 'Originally I wanted to do my neighbours a favour by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper.’
Captivated by this sonic exposition, he placed the microphones so deep inside the piano that they were almost touching the strings. This brought a host of external sounds to the recordings which most producers would try their hardest to hide: ‘I hear myself breathing and panting, the scraping sound of the piano's action and the creaking of my wooden floorboards – all equally as loud as the music. The music becomes a contingency, a chance, an accident within all this rustling. My heart opens and I wonder what exactly it is that makes me feel so happy.’
'Felt' creates its own personal microcosm, offering a refuge of tender and honest beauty.
#42 BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 – GUARDIAN ★★★★ | #10 BEST UNDERGROUND ALBUMS OF 2011 – MOJO | ★★★★ – UNCUT | ★★★★ – CLASH | ★★★★★ – MUSO | (9/10) – DROWNED IN SOUND
8.45 - 9pm : break
9pm : OLAFUR ARNALDS (45')
9.45 - 10pm : break
10pm : NILS FRAHM (45')
special guest: ANNE MÜLLER – cello
ERASED TAPES RECORDS
Erased Tapes Records is home to Ólafur Arnalds, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Rival Consoles, The B.E.F., Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick, amongst others. It was February 5th, 2007 when the record company was first registered and is now based in London and Berlin.
Erased Tapes has become a meeting point and melting pot for innovative and imaginative musicians who knew there had to be somewhere they could call home. As artist Nils Frahm says, the label is ‘a wonderful place for creating music and I couldn't be happier in this family. And it is a family. There’s a great sense of freedom on this label.’ Positioned deliberately outside the fleeting trends that typify contemporary indie music, Erased Tapes has fostered collaboration between its artists, often fusing disparate musical forms and styles, rendering so-called genres like modern classical, post rock and electronica redundant.
Robert Raths, founder of Erased Tapes, explains: 'I've always been most interested in a dialogue between two opposite poles, between traditional and contemporary, between digital and analogue. That cliff between electronic and acoustic, the pop and the classical world. In bringing these worlds together or at least start a conversation in how to utilise the best of both sides and make it into something exciting, something current and something that is of our time. In the beginning people might have found it hard to connect these dots between each of our artists, but throughout the years I think it has become more and more evident where the label is heading. Lots of good things have happened that I never dared to dream of. That’s what keeps it so exciting for me. And with what lies ahead, I daren’t even think where it might lead…’
Full label profile interview published on Clash.
A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN A Winged Victory For The Sullen is the first installment of the new collaboration between Stars Of The Lid founder Adam Wiltzie and L.A. composer Dustin O’Halloran.
On May 24th 2007, in Bologna, Italy, Adam was on tour and playing with the late Mark Linkous & his beloved Sparklehorse, on what would be their final European tour. That night Adam invited friend and colleague Francesco Donadello to see the concert, and Francesco's guest this evening was composer Dustin O'Halloran (Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ O.S.T.).
Through a strange twist of backstage conversations surrounding passport cache conundrums, and love of Italian gastronomy, a curious friendship began that now has brought forth an offspring of truly curative compositions for the world to savour.
The duo agreed to leave the comfort zone of their home studios and develop the recordings with the help of large acoustic spaces, hunting down a selection of 9ft grand pianos that had the ability to deliver extreme sonic low end. Other traditional instrumentation was used including string quartet, French horn, and bassoon, but always juxtaposed is the sound of drifting guitar washed melodies. The recordings began with one late night session in the famed Grunewald Church in Berlin on a 1950s imperial Bösendorfer piano and strings were added in the historic East Berlin DDR radio studios along the River Spree.
One last session on a handmade Fazioli piano in a private studio on the Northern cusp of Italy, before the final mixes took place in a 17th century villa near Ferrara with the assistance of Francesco Donadello. All songs were then processed completely analogue straight to magnetic tape. Their secret to harvesting new melodic structures from the thin air of existence was for the duo to push themselves to dangerous territory, realising that clear thinking at the wrong moment could stifle the compositions. The final result is seven landscapes of harmonic ingemination. In ‘Requiem For The Static King Part One’ – created in memory of the untimely passing of Mark Linkous – they have taken the age-old idea of a string quartet and then shot it out of a cannon to reveal exquisite new levels of sonic bliss. Of the 13 minute track ‘Symphony Pathétique’, Wiltzie says ‘after almost 20 years of struggling to create interesting ambient drone music, I feel like I have finally figured out what I am doing’. Notable guest musicians include Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, as well asErased Tapes label comrade Peter Broderick on violin. A Winged Victory For The Sullen is not a side project – it is the future of the late night record you have always dreamed of.
The band are currently touring their highly acclaimed, self-titled debut album with great applause.
'GEM' ★★★★ MOJO | 'TRIUMPH' ★★★★ UNCUT | 'VICTORIOUS' – GUARDIAN | 'A VICTORY' – BBC MUSIC 'CELESTIAL' 9/10 – DROWNED IN SOUND | 'OTHERWORLDLY' – PITCHFORK
ÓLAFUR ARNALDS Born in the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsbær, a few kilometers outside of Reykjavík, the 25-year old composer has always enjoyed pushing boundaries with both his studio work and his live-shows. Through relentless touring and determination this young artist has steadily gained recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut 'Eulogy for Evolution'. Ólafur Arnalds’ second full-length album '…and they have escaped the weight of darkness' (2010), continues his mission to lure an indie-generation of pop and rock fans into an emotive world of beguiling electronic chamber music and delicate classical arrangements.
Following in the spirit of Ólafur Arnalds’ critically acclaimed 'Found Songs' (2009) autumn 2011 saw 'Living Room Songs'. This time Ólafur took the idea further and invited the audience into the comfort of his living room, where the songs were recorded live and the whole process filmed. The songs were instantly released in form of a free mp3 download and video stream- straight from Ólafur's Reykjavik apartment. ‘One night I was just playing my piano here in this apartment and I was writing a new song and I didn't have my phone on me which I usually use to record ideas. So I actually took out my MacBook and I didn't want to open like a proper recording program, so I just opened Photo Booth and recorded a video of myself playing the song so that I would remember the song. And I really liked the atmosphere of that video and that's when I thought I should do a series of songs in my living room…’, explains Ólafur.
His first Hollywood soundtrack for Sam Levinson’s feature film debut ‘Another Happy Day’, starring Ellen Barkin and Demi Moore, will see a worldwide release via Erased Tapes Records on February 27. In March Ólafur will embark on his 'Trio Tour 2012' throughout Europe.
'THE INDIE KID WHO KNOWS THE SCORE' – GUARDIAN’S OBSERVER | 'AN ARTIST OF IMMENSE MATURITY' (9/10) – DROWNED IN SOUND |'TIMELESS AND SUBLIME’ ★★★★ – UNCUT | 'HOTWIRED TO THE SOUL' – THE QUIETUS | 'TRIUMPHANT. EVEN AT HIS MOST RESERVED, ARNALDS IS AN ARTIST WHO CAN EXERT IMMENSE POWER WITH THE LIGHTEST OF TOUCHES' – Mike Diver, BBC MUSIC
NILS FRAHM Nils Frahm, born on September 20th, 1982, had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski – a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. It was through this that Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers.
Today Nils Frahm works as an accomplished composer and producer from his Berlin-based Durton Studio, where he has worked and collaborated with many contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds, Anne Müller, Deaf Center, Efterklang and Dustin O’Halloran amongst other fellow musicians. His unconventional approach to an age-old instrument, played contemplatively and intimately, has won him many fans around the world. For a musician this early in his career, Frahm displays an incredibly developed sense of control and restraint in his work, catching the ear of many fans including Thom Yorke, who featured one of Nils’ songs in Radiohead’s HQ office chart. As the recognition continues to grow for his previous solo piano works 'Wintermusik' (2009) and ‘The Bells’ (2009), October 2011 saw the release of his most acclaimed album to date: 'Felt'.
Having recorded his last album live in a large, reverberant church, Nils Frahm now invites you to put on your headphones and dive into a world of microscopic and delicate sounds – so intimate that you could be sitting beside him. Recorded late at night in the reflective solitude and silence of his studio in Berlin, Frahm uncovers a new sound and source of inspiration within these peaceful moments: 'Originally I wanted to do my neighbours a favour by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper.’
Captivated by this sonic exposition, he placed the microphones so deep inside the piano that they were almost touching the strings. This brought a host of external sounds to the recordings which most producers would try their hardest to hide: ‘I hear myself breathing and panting, the scraping sound of the piano's action and the creaking of my wooden floorboards – all equally as loud as the music. The music becomes a contingency, a chance, an accident within all this rustling. My heart opens and I wonder what exactly it is that makes me feel so happy.’
'Felt' creates its own personal microcosm, offering a refuge of tender and honest beauty.
#42 BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 – GUARDIAN ★★★★ | #10 BEST UNDERGROUND ALBUMS OF 2011 – MOJO | ★★★★ – UNCUT | ★★★★ – CLASH | ★★★★★ – MUSO | (9/10) – DROWNED IN SOUND
