The mini album, and soundtrack to acclaimed artist JR’s short film ELLIS, is available in full now
Ahead of its official release on Friday, Nils Frahm and Woodkid’s mini album made in collaboration with Robert De Niro, ELLIS, is now streaming in full.
The mini album is also the soundtrack to ELLIS, a film from French artist, director and photographer JR, tracking the journey of a migrant that makes their way to America through Ellis Island. The film stars aforementioned Hollywood megastar Robert De Niro, and according to press release, “winds its way through the crumbling hallways of the abandoned Ellis Island hospital complex, now home to JR’s Unframed art installation.”
Frahm said of the piece: “The opportunity to work on JR´s fantastic short film ELLIS came through my good friend Yoann aka Woodkid. We agreed on recording the piano parts in my studio in Berlin and so it happened that JR and Woodkid were guests at Durton studio on a wonderful late summers day in 2015. We managed to record all the crucial elements that day. The music fell into our laps and melted with the images: a wonderful experience. The film has stuck in my head ever since; it moved my heart and changed my soul.
A couple of weeks later I had to cancel a trip to Brussels because of a terror warning; all events got cancelled and I stayed home, having an unexpected day off. I felt rather depressed that day, thinking that the Europe I knew was already gone. I sat down at the harmonium, listened to Robert De Niro’s voice and played for the rest of the day. The result is Winter Morning II, the B-side of the ELLIS soundtrack release.
Robert says it all in 17 minutes. We are not facing a refugee crisis. We are facing a crisis because we do not embrace, we do not sympathise and we cannot give up fear. Art can encourage so I hope this project will help fight the fear in all of us.”
All the proceeds from the sales of the release will be going to the Sea Watch initiative, a non-profit charity dedicated to the protection and rescue of civilian refugees. It will be available this Friday via Erased Tapes on CD, vinyl and digital with an accompanying 12-page picture booklet.
We visited Nils in his Berlin studio. Read the feature here.