Nils Frahm

Nils Frahm released his first album in 2005, Streichelfisch, and in 2008 established the Durton Studios in Berlin, but his breakthrough came in 2011 when he released the now seminal Felt on influential London-based label Erased Tapes.  

In 2014, Nils scored his first feature film, the much-acclaimed German production, Victoria. 2015 also saw the release of Solo, a collection of improvised pieces released to mark the first Piano Day, a new holiday (devised by Nils) to celebrate all things piano that will take place on the 88th day of the year. Nils also found the time to tour extensively in 2015, his appearances including key performances at The Montreaux Jazz Festival and The BBC Proms at The Royal Albert Hall.

Nils notched up more than 100 gigs across Europe and the US in 2012 alone, his preternatural virtuosity, memorable compositions, and easy rapport with audiences winning him new fans everywhere he played.  Nils’ album Spaces, a collection of live performances of his music, was released in 2013.

In 2017, Nils released a new studio album through Erased Tapes, All Melody. He has subsequently released three accompanying EP’s; Encores 1 (2018), Encores 2 and Encores 3 (2019), followed by the full album release of All Encores.

Following the release of All Melody in 2018, Nils brought his spectacular live show all around the world with over 180 sold out performances including the Hammersmith Apollo in London, L.A.’s Disney Hall, Brooklyn Steel, Le Trianon in Paris and the Sydney Opera House.

To celebrate Piano Day 2020, Nils released Empty – a collection of solo upright piano music originally recorded as a soundtrack to a short film he shot with his friend and film director Benoit Toulemonde in 2012. 

In December 2020, Frahm released the concert film Tripping with Nils Frahm, accompanied by a live album out on Erased Tapes. The film, produced by the newly-launched label and production company LEITER, in association with Plan B Entertainment, premiered on the curated online cinema Mubi.

Continuing his annual celebration of Piano Day, Nils shared a previously unreleased nine-track piano album in March 2021. Graz dates back to 2009, recorded on grand piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz as part of the thesis Conversations for Piano and Room which received an award in the Classical Surround Recording category at the 127th AES Convention in New York. It was Nils’ first album recorded for Erased Tapes, but it was kept locked away until now.

Toward the end of 2021, Nils released the album 2X1=4, an exploration of a dub-influenced universe with his long-time collaborator F.S.Blumm. This was followed by Old Friends New Friends – a collection of 23 unreleased solo piano tracks recorded between 2009 and 2021.

To celebrate Piano Day 2022, LEITER released Piano Day Vol. I – a curated compilation with thirty-two exclusive and unreleased piano pieces from various corners of the world including Nils’s track Brainwash.

In 2022, Nils shared Music For Animals, Nils’s first fresh solo material since 2018’s All Melody and 2019’s associated All Encores, and his first full-length album of brand-new music for LEITER. An ambitious and compelling set different to anything he has released to date, the three-hour long collection retains many of the qualities that have set his work apart over much of the last decade.⁠ The album was accompanied by an expansive worldwide tour, including a four-night residency, Music for London, at the Barbican in July 2024, with each performance dedicated to the city it was in. In 2024, he also released his latest album Day – a collection of solo piano music recorded in the summer of 2022 in complete solitude and away from his studio at Berlin’s famed Funkhaus complex.