Nils Frahm's Re (Bassling's ray mix)



Disquiet Junto Project 0055: Two Screws

  This week's project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm. 

  Frahm, who's based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs. He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received. 

For this project you will take two of the source tracks — "Do" and "Re" — and create a new track from them, in the process creating a work for two pianos. 

Source Audio: You can download the files as sets of MP3 or AIF audio: http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046_Nils_Frahm_Screws_mp3.zip  http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046_Nils_Frahm_Screws_aif.zip

Or download the individual file directly from their links here:  https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes/sets/nils-frahm-screws

You can only use those two Frahm tracks as audio source material for your track, and you cannot add anything other sounds, but you can transform the two Frahm tracks as you please. In the end, though, the sound of a piano should be evident.

  Deadline: Monday, January 21, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes long.

  Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term "disquiet0055-twoscrews" in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Also: Be sure to share the track to the Reworked site, here: http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/submit/ 

Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:

More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Frahm project at: http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/


For this project I explored the 'follow' function in Ableton Live, setting short loops to play 'any' following and sat back to enjoy the random harmonic collisions that ensued.

After limiting myself to samples from the track 'Do' and not finding a satisfying combination, I experimented with 'Re' -- which is a really lovely tune and I didn't think I could add anything to it.

Inspiration for this remix comes from Susumu Yokota, whose loop-based work I've enjoyed. Brian Eno also for the interesting phasing that results from the few pitched loops that I've used.

The phrases I've used were about seven semitones apart and one is slightly short. Aside from the reverbs, effects include Ableton Live's Beatrepeat to isolate notes from the piano playing.

It's cool to see Nils Frahm encouraging people to re-work his material. While looking for his version of Re to share here I found the following video using it.

(Re)flection - a Nils Frahm rework from Jem the Misfit on Vimeo.