nonkeen, the new band comprised of Nils Frahm and his childhood friends, revealed their first song this morning. “chasing god through palmyra” is accompanied by a music video from Berlin-based digital studio FELD. The organization, which has worked with Frahm several times in the past, crafted the video on an incredibly elaborate model train set, offering a first-person POV that journeys through Lilliputian settings rendered nearly as realistically as life itself.
The quasi-linear ride mirrors nonkeen’s hypnotic momentum, propelled by shakers and tribal drums and dizzied by layers of woozy electronics. Looped tape of a man’s mutterings adds to the disorientation of the chase.
A handful of moments evoke Frahm’s muddled piano sound, but the piece is largely removed from the composer's standard repertoire. It seems the nonkeen ethos is going to be more brooding, danceable electronica than introspective pianisms, which is pretty cool.
nonkeen’s debut LP, The Gamble, arrives via R&S Records on February 5.
