Nils Frahm presents first track "Right Right Right" from upcoming new album

Nils Frahm has confirmed details of an expansive new album, Music For Animals, his first fresh studio material since 2018’s All Melody and 2019’s associated All Encores, and his first full length album of brand-new music for LEITER, the label he co-founded with his manager, Felix Grimm. Containing ten tracks and clocking in at over three hours long, it’s an ambitious and compelling set different to anything Frahm’s released to date – in fact, it finds the Piano Day founder declining to use a piano – but at the same time retains many of the qualities that have set the influential musician’s work apart over much of the last two decades. Recorded between 2020 and 2022 at Frahm’s studio in Berlin’s Funkhaus complex, Music For Animals will be released on September 23, 2022 as a 3CD and 4LP set, as well as via all DSPs.

As a title, Music For Animals is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the conceptual albums of the 1950s – like Raymond Scott’s Music For Babies – as well as to contemporary playlist habits. “I feel a certain frustration with the functional use of music these days, all these playlists with names like Music for Sleeping, Music for Focus, Music for Masturbation,” Frahm laughs. “Music always seems to need to do something useful. That’s a very client-driven logic: the client needs something, the music should deliver that, otherwise ‘You’re Fired!’ With this album, there was no specific audience in mind, and nor was it adapted to any particular purpose. But in fact, it seemed to please the animals I’ve spent a lot of time with these last months, so, you know: if you can’t beat them, join them...!”

At three hours long, Music For Animals might seem initially intimidating, but the truth is that this substantial collection encourages listeners to bask in its tranquility at their chosen depth, demanding only as much attention as they wish to contribute. As Frahm himself happily points out, “It all comes back to that waterfall. If you want to watch it, watch it. If you don’t, then you don’t have to. It will always be the same, yet never quite the same.” Indeed, that’s Music For Animals’ greatest strength. Instantly recognisable, it’s still like nothing else.

Listen HERE.

Pre-order the album HERE.

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