Tripping with Nils Frahm is having its world premiere on MUBI on December 3, 2020.
With Nils Frahm's new concert film premiering today, the German musician, who scored Sebastian Schipper's Victoria and the multi-screen Cate Blanchett art work Manifesto, has generously shared a list of his favorite film music. Featuring scores by Miles Davis (Elevator to the Gallows), Eleni Karaindrou (Eternity in a Day), Vincent Gallo (Buffalo 66), and AIR (The Virgin Suicides), the selection is eclectic and inspiring, cutting across genres, decades, and music styles. Frahm writes:
"I have always respected and admired filmmakers. I believe no other type of artist generally works harder than the director. A good director is like a great musician, since films are like long songs or albums, only even more complicated. One could add: a musician is even more like a filmmaker, so his or her compositions respect the art of storytelling, timing, and the change of atmosphere. Sometimes you find directors who are talented musicians themselves, ready to record their own soundtrack. If they aren’t, they can still decide to work entirely without music. Often they cannot make the music, and they need musicians to assist them. It usually is a complicated process since a lot of music fits a scene on the surface, but only certain music adds something truly important to the film. You might say that one sound out of a million turns the director’s movie into a timeless piece of art. And if a director does not trust any musician to be able to find that one moment he can still run to the record shop and find it there, like Stanley Kubrick."
Many of his selections can be streamed in a Spotify playlist: