Nils Frahm Late Night Tales: Nils Frahm Vinyl 2LP
 
A hypnotic voyage through modern and classical composition, experimental electronics, jazz, dub techno, soundtracks and soul; composer, musician and producer Nils Frahm's Late Night Tales haunts and beguiles. It's not mixing, so much as gently layering, like a particularly fluffy goose-down duvet folding in on itself, the folds part of the attraction, the layers part of the overall picture being painted.
 
Many of the tracks have been edited, effected and re-made. The subtly overdubbed parts on Rhythm & Sound's "Mango Drive" adding to the haunting hypnosis, while choral interruptions aid Miles Davis' "Générique" on its journey towards the light. Meanwhile, on Boards Of Canada's "In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country," the tempo is somewhat sluggish, the organs slurred, as Frahm slows it down to a funereal 33rpm that nevertheless fits perfectly. The purring of his girlfriend's cat Cleo transitions playfully between Nina Simone's definitive version of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" and unearthing the gentle electronics of Dub Tractor.
 
This crackly reality abounds, as on Finnish band Gentleman Losers' "Honey Bunch," that adds an unsettling texture, with a sound that is modern but as nostalgic. Frahm's own tracks bookend the mix, opening with an inspired "rework" of the infamous silent John Cage piece "4:33" ("I sat at the piano in silence and worked from there.
 
I listened and took in the atmosphere and this is what came out of it") and ending with a solo piano version of "Them," taken from his recently released score of the film Victoria. The traditional Late Night Tales spoken word epilogue is voiced by actor Cillian Murphy (Inception, Batman, 28 Days Later), reading a short story by Edna Walsh (Hunger, Disco Pigs).
"I've really got off on working on compilations lately. 
 
Nils Frahm Late Night Tales: Nils Frahm Track Listing:
 
LP1
 
1. Nils Frahm - 4:33 (Exclusive John Cage cover version)
2. The Baka Forest People Of South-East Cameroon - Liquindi 2
3. Carl Oesterhelt & Johannes Enders - Divertimento Fur Tenorsaxophon Und Kleines Ensemble Pt. 4
4. Four Tet - 0181 (excerpt)
5. Boards Of Canada - In A Beautiful lace Out In The Country
6. Bibio - It Was Willow
7. Dictaphone - Peaks
8. System - SK20
9. Rhythm & Sound - Mango Drive
 
LP2
 
1. Victor Silvester & His Ballroom Orchestra - Talk Of The Town
2. Miles Davis - Générique
3. Colin Stetson - The Righteous Wrath Of An Honorable Man
4. Penguin Café Orchestra - Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter
5. Nina Simone - Who Knows Where The Time Goes
6. Gene Autry - You're The Only Star In My Blue Heaven
7. Dinu Lipatti - O Herr Bleibet Meine Freunde, BMV 147
8. Nina Jurisch - Cleo The Cat (Exclusive track)
9. Dub Tractor - Cirkel
10. The Gentlemen Losers - Honey Bunch
11. Nils Frahm - Them "Solo Piano Edit" (Exclusive version)
12. Cillian Murphy - In The Morning (Exclusive spoken word piece)