Have you ever had a small child try to scare you, but you knew it was coming, and had to just play it cool for their sake? Like maybe you could see a little figure under a white sheet making their way towards you, and you just had to pretend that you didn’t see it until the final “boo”?
That’s somehow the feeling this song by Berlin-based pianist and composer Felix Rösch manages to convey. It sounds ominous, but in a strangely adorable way. Released earlier this month on Silent Green Records, it’s got elements of Nils Frahm, Grandbrothers, and even a touch of Radiohead’s “Idiothèque.” Somehow, that combination of ingredients makes it inviting and spooky all at once.
Rösch’s music floats comfortably in the no-man’s-land between neoclassical, ambient, and electronic. He’s done lots of soundtrack and incidental music, and it’s easy to see how his work could lazily be categorized as “background music,” but it deserves your full attention.
Much like that suspicious toddler-sized lump beneath the missing bedsheet.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Although the piano sticks mostly to rapid-fire sixteenth notes, there are moments (like at 0.33) when some triplets sneak in to surprise you.
2. Although it’s so quiet, there are moments (like 1.25) of brief crescendo when it feels like it’s building towards something big, before pulling back again.
3. Although the soft kick drum keeps time virtually the whole way through, there’s a moment just before 2 minutes when it drops out, as if the song has decided to settle, before the kick re-enters.
Recommended listening activity:
Playing hide and seek.