Top 10 of 2011
9: Nils Frahm - Felt
My first listen to this album didn’t feel quite right. The choice to record not just the music but all the ambient noise and instrument mechanisms (largely piano keys and hammers) didn’t quite make sense initially. But as I listened further, it all opened up. Well, the opposite of opening up. All those little things that recording engineers probably usually try their best not to capture to tape were featured here. This is what making music actually sounds like! All of it! This is what my aging upright sounds like all the time when I play it, and here someone is recording that! Once that all clicked into place, it was amazing to listen to, all these noises just as crucial to the creation of the melody as the melody itself. Since one of the greatest sounds ever, to my ears, is the sound of the sustain pedal lifting at the end of a piece, it was disconcerting, then surprising, then wonderful to have that all part of a record.
Top Tracks: More, Keep, Unter
