Tripping with Nils Frahm: An interview with the contemporary German composer

In his aptly-named new music film, Tripping with Nils Frahm, out this week to coincide with his new live album of the same name, the German composer and producer invites you to spend an hour or so immersed in his unique soundscapes that skilfully traverse both the classical and electronic.

Working with longtime collaborator Benoit Toulemonde, his talents as both a musician and a showman are stunningly captured, with handheld camera work bringing us even closer than front row privilege would allow to witness just how he is able to produce so much sound with just two hands.

Not only a transcendent journey into sound, there’s a bittersweet joy to living that live performance at the iconic Berlin Funkhaus at the end of a 2018 world tour of All Melody vicariously through the enraptured audience, when now such pandemic-banned experiences are a distant memory.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Frahm ahead of the release about why he wanted to make a concert film, his influences and processes as an artist and how the film may resonate amidst the worldwide pause of live performance due to Covid-19.

Sarah Bradbury

Tripping with Nils Frahm is released exclusively on Mubi on 3^rd December 2020.