F.S. Blumm and Nils Frahm – Handling

NILS FRAHM and F.S.BLUMM release their fifth collaborative album, Handling. Containing three tracks that total 40 minutes length, it finds the duo advancing from 2021’s dub-influenced 2X1=4, deploying its lessons in ambitious new territory that also nods to earlier collections. 

Handling’s three exquisitely detailed pieces are each entitled ‘Leuchter,’ German for ‘candlestick,’ encapsulating the LP’s luminescent glow and rising inner energy. Its scrupulous arrangements exploit a magic cabinet of instruments, among them pianos, celestas and cristal baschets, glockenspiels, guitars and multiple forms of percussion. Their painstakingly engineered improvisations were equally meticulously reassembled in a series of intense editing sessions.

That the duo’s collaboration is built on a friendship and mutual admiration dating back to the early 2000s enables an unusual level of trust, despite both operating in their own distinct manner. “It’s not Frank, it’s not Nils,” they reflect. “We’ve become a new persona.” Handling blends Blumm’s organic chaos with Frahm’s structured intuition, offering a distinct and luminous experience that doesn’t just sound different, but feels like its own evolving world.