Spaces

Released in 2013, Spaces represents a pivotal moment in Nils Frahm's career, moving him from the 'intimate piano guy' archetype into a more formidable multi-instrumentalist and experimentalist. Rather than a standard live recording, Frahm curated a 'collage' of performances recorded on various mediums, including field recorders and cassette decks, later edited at his Durton Studio in Berlin. This approach highlights his philosophy that the room and the audience are active participants in the music. The album is notable for its inclusion of non-musical sounds - coughs, ringing phones, and unconventional percussion like toilet brushes - which critics from Pitchfork and AllMusic praised for adding a human, tactile dimension to the often-sterile world of modern classical. It remains his most definitive statement on the power of improvisation and the physical space of performance.