Journeying Inside the Piano With Nils Frahm's Felt

Felt, a fascinating new project from Nils Frahm, looks at the acoustic possibilities of placing microphones within the piano so that they capture the hidden sounds of the piano's internal mechanism before the notes sound. From the Felt page on Soundcloud:

'Originally I wanted to do my neighbours a favour by damping the sound of my piano. If I want to play piano during the quiet of the night, the only respectful way is by layering thick felt in front of the strings and using very gentle fingers. It was then that I discovered that my piano sounds beautiful with the damper.’

Captivated by this sonic exposition, he placed the microphones so deep inside the piano that they were almost touching the strings. This brought a host of external sounds to the recordings which most producers would try their hardest to hide:

‘I hear myself breathing and panting, the scraping sound of the piano's action and the creaking of my wooden floorboards – all equally as loud as the music. The music becomes a contingency, a chance, an accident within all this rustling. My heart opens and I wonder what exactly it is that makes me feel so happy.’

Here are two excerpts:

  Nils Frahm - Felt (teaser) by erasedtapes

Stay tuned for the entire album, which will be released on October 11...