Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Nils Frahm - Says

I was at a friend's wedding and the place we stayed in had one of them creepy Alexa machines. My roommate has one. The kind that's always listening and probably recording me and my tastes to sell to North Korean by way of the Ukraine darkweb hackers... and Google.

Figured I'd try it out so I said, "Play modern, beautiful, experimental classical music." It played this piece second.

One thing I really like about this piece, and you can see him do it live, is that he really gets into what he's playing, I mean, he learns the mechanics. Not only has he dug into both the Roland Juno-60 (the constant arpeggiator in the background) and not only is he very well versed in the piano, he plays the Roland RE-501 like an instrument. He's actively playing/messing with the tape delay, the motors and speed and anything he can futz with. I first saw John Dwyer of the Oh Sees do this at the Chapel a few years back. I know I'm late to the game, people have been playing tape delays as another instrument since they came on the scene (terry riley, etc). But I've never had one. Frahm inspired me to go out and get one. Which I did! Totally stealing this guy's steez.

I can only assume that even though I travelled to Colorado for the wedding and don't own an Alexa, Alexa still recognized my voice and knew exactly who I was. Or, this really is just straight up modern, beautiful, experimental classical music.

Let's believe that.

At least for now.


No comments:

Post a Comment