''Spaces'' is the seventh studio album by German musician

Nils Frahm Nils Frahm (born 20 September 1982) is a German musician, composer, and record producer based in Berlin. He is known for combining classical and electronic music and for an unconventional approach to the piano in which he mixes a grand piano, upr ...

. It was released on 19 November 2013 on the Erased Tapes record label. It has been described by Frahm as a "collage of

field recording Field recording is the production of audio recordings outside recording studios, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It can also include the recording of electromagnetic fields or vibrations using diff ...

s", and a

sound collage In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or Musical composition, compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as musique concrè ...

of found sounds, and includes music recorded over a 2-year period at different locations using a variety of methods including

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback * Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...

and

reel to reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is place ...

tapes.

Reception

''Spaces'' received general acclaim upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 90 based on 15 reviews, which is categorised as "universal acclaim". In his review for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', Nick Neyland called it "an absorbing work, full of pensive moments cut together by music that thrives on dovetailing melodies that can be simultaneously mesmerizing and beautiful". In his review on

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of tradition ...

, Kieron Tyler said the album does not feel like "a conventional live album", but rather a "seamless whole". ''Spaces'' was given an honorable mention in ''Pitchfork''s Albums of the Year 2014, with Nick Neyland remarking, "There are magical properties here, giving ''Spaces'' a quality that makes it easy to forget the world outside during its absorbing duration". "Says" was ranked at number 47 on ''Pitchfork''s list of The 100 Best Tracks of 2014, with critic Andrew Rice writing that the track comes closest to capturing "the experience of seeing a Frahm concert".

Track listing

References

{{Authority control Nils Frahm albums Erased Tapes Records albums 2014 albums Experimental music albums by German artists Sound collage albums Field recording