Frederic Gmeiner and Nils Frahm attended the same primary school in a rural suburb of Hamburg. Their mutual interest in sound recording brought them together and formed the basis of a long- lasting friendship. In second year of school, they began producing their own radio show, which featured incidental sounds from the school ground, the voices of their teachers and recordings of themselves practising their instruments, all recorded on rudimentary tape machines for kids. In summer 1989, the East German schoolboy Sebastian Singwald spent two weeks at their school during a sports exchange with the GDR Youth Athletics team. He arrived with his own shabby tape recorder dangling around his neck.
Intrigued by the exotic GDR technology, Frahm and Gmeiner bonded with Singwald over discussing mechanics and comparing devices. After Singwald returned to Karlshorst Berlin he became their DDR correspondent »Korrespondent für körperliche Betäti- gung«, sending back reports of his life at school and recordings of sporting events. Encouraged by the radio shows growing following of students, Frahm and Gmeiner started focussing on the musical interludes between the reports of school life. They played, covered and reworked an eclectic mix of childrens folk songs, pop music theyd heard on the radio, classical compositions and improvised pieces; recycling whatever sounds or music came their way. Singwald would contribute recordings of his bass to the compositions. After the Berlin Wall came down, Gmeiner and Frahm were eager to visit Singwald to play together as a band. Singwalds uncle invited them to perform their original material on his fairgrounds in Plänterwald over the summer holidays.
Moved by the notion of a reunified Germany, their parents supported their friendship and their long stays in East Berlin. The band continued to perform on the fairgrounds for several weeks each summer throughout their childhood years. In the summer of 1997, when all three members had turned 15, a disaster would halt their musical careers and end their collaboration. Their performance was abruptly cut short when the chained seats of a round- about nearby broke off and two of its passengers smashed into the stage. One victim landed feet first in the bass drum, another crashed into Singwalds bass amp. As the injured were hauled into an ambulance, Gmeiner, Frahm and Singwald left their broken instruments behind, swore off music collectively and went their separate ways.
Well into their twenties, Gmeiner, Frahm and Singwald resolved at a drunken reunion that they wouldnt let the past rule their lives and cast a shadow over their band any longer. Slowly and cautiously, they began to play music again, meeting privately in Singwalds basement for long experimental sessions which they recorded on their tape machines, like in the old days. They listened to their childhood recordings nostalgically, overdubbing parts to them and sampling others. After five years, an album had grown organically from this process and nonkeen felt ready to leave their basement again.
This collaboration has laid forth a radiophonic mixture of dreamlike electro-acoustic instrumentation that has a startlingly familiar feel to it in the same way Boards Of Canada evokes memories of childhood. The tracks have a cinematic quality that blends influence and builds upon ideas laid down from film score techno, hazy guitar led drone and post-rock funk, fuzz 'n' drums, all committed to an array of tape machines. Nils has described The Gamble as the record of which his he is most proud, and we can confirm that its a peak in his endlessly fascinating discography. The Gamble is the sound of three highly skilled musicians who when combined craft out pieces of timeless music that map out new directions to explore while keeping a familiarity that's gonna be a huge appeal to anyone into Broadcast, Erased Tapes and Jon Hopkins.A1 The Invention Mother 2:50 A2 Saddest Continent On Earth 4:34 A3 Ceramic People 4:42 B1 Animal Farm 6:01 B2 This Beautiful Mess 5:40 B3 Capstan 3:02 C1 Chasing God Through Palmyra 6:22 C2 Pink Flirt 3:07 C3 Re: Turn! 6:21 D For Voice 8:41
