The German composer Nils Frahm recently dropped his latest record, Empty, without warning, and it’s been keeping us company while tapping away at our laptop ever since.
It follows in a similar vein to much of his solo piano work, with eight sparsely arranged tracks. They’re each enveloped by a gentle, echoey ambience, which gently cuts out any noise from beyond the headphones, allowing you to kick on with the day's work.
Frahm takes us through various moods and tones throughout the course of the 35-minute album. There are quiet, sombre moments such as on the first track First Defeat, but then there is bright escapism on the twinkling No Step on Wing. The rest of the music moves tentatively between the two, with little that's distracting.
The whole thing is calm, soothing and verging on meditative. If it's been a stressful shift, then this comes highly recommended. And once you've worked through Empty, check out some of Frahm's other albums for something similar: Screws and Solo are two good places to start.
We'll be back next week with another WFH album, and to tide you over until then, check out our go-to guide for work-friendly albums.
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