Music Infinity: Nonkeen in Prague

After one year, German composer Nils Frahm returns to Prague but this time not alone. On May 3rd he will perform at Palac Akropolis as a member of an instrumental band called Nonkeen. Roots of this band goes back to the end of the 80s when three German schoolboys messed around with sounds at the school radio. Their fascination and obsession with weird sounds and moments of coincidence in creating the music has remained till these days and they eventually meet again as Nonkeen band.

Photography by Julia Soler

Coincidence had an important role for the creation of Nonkeen. Frederic Gmeiner and Nils Frahm were highschool classmates and in their free time they were having fun with broadcasting sounds on school radio. In the summer of 1989, the duo joined Sebastian Singwald and that was the beginning of a student band that unfortunately ended after an accident happened during one of their concert. After that, members of the band headed off to their own journeys. Nils has became one of the most interesting composers of modern classical electronic music, meanwhile Sebastian has been recognized for his work on movie soundtracks.

However their paths crossed again around the year 2005, firstly as a project Übertonmensch and later, after the hours of improvisations in the studio, project Nonkeen was born. At the beginning of 2016, the trio unveiled on R&S imprint their debut titled The Gamble. Using keyboads, bass and drums, the band builds their music on the basics of German krautrock, psychedelic rock music of 70s and enjoys improvisations and spontaneity.