Faber Music is delighted to be the exclusive distributor of Sheets Zwei, the second book in the SHEETS series featuring the printed music of Nils Frahm’s piano works. This deluxe artefact was published by Manners McDade on the 29th June 2016 and presents Frahm’s piano works in a beautiful linen hardback book.
As well as a selection of beautiful piano pieces by Nils, Sheets Zwei contains a selection of art and photographs by Nils’ father, Klaus Frahm, illustrated instructions on how to prepare your piano, and a digital pass to download audio of the titles featured.
The music is presented in such a way that reflects Nils’ no-rules approach to music making. Seeking to go beyond the strict limitations that sheet music may often evoke, the pieces are more of a blueprint with which players are encouraged to reinterpret, modify and make their own: Zwei is an open invitation from Nils for piano enthusiasts to explore their own creativity and simply spend time to enjoy playing.
“As already mentioned in the first edition of this ongoing series of Sheets, I never had a real talent for sight- reading. My piano teachers were always troubled by my refusal to stick to the notes displaying what sounded and felt indescribable to me. I consider this experience as a good start to write your own sheet music. In any case, we tried to make your sight-reading experience as nice as possible. You could, for example, just have a look at my father’s photography while meditating on the many changes of tempo in my music. Even easier, you could start writing your own piece on some of the blank pages at the end of the book or learn how to transform your piano into an Una Corda piano. Whatever comes to your mind, I hope this book will accompany you and your loved ones for a long time.” - Nils Frahm
There’s a light-heartedness about the book that makes the music accessible for both the highly skilled and the beginner pianist. Like his music, Nils’ introductory words are warm and sensitive, and there’s an underlying humour (in places such as the performance notes and diagrams) that make clear his intentions for Zwei as an opportunity to share his music with fans in a relaxed environment and allow them to engage with it in ways previously unavailable.
Transcribed Songs
‘SCREWS’ · 2012
ME
LA
RE
SOL
‘SPACES’ · 2013
HAMMERS
WENT MISSING
‘SOLO’ · 2015
CIRCLING
ODE
WALL
SOME
Accompanying photography
The photographer Klaus Frahm collaborated with his son to provide the special artwork for Sheets Zwei. The artwork by Klaus Frahm comes from a series of photographs of barns, abandoned buildings and other rural artifacts taken in Portugal during Nils’ childhood. The improvised experimental method of applying the liquid light-sensitive emulsion on the watercolour-paper with a brush underline the roughness and simple structures Klaus has photographed and transport his ideas on structure and improvisation.
Nils Frahm appears in Possibly Colliding at the Barbican Centre 1st-3rd July.