Nils Frahm's Nonkeen announce their third album, All Good?

The forthcoming album serves as a heartfelt homage to Herbert Laser – the innovative mind behind ‘Laserjazz’ and a longtime musical inspiration for the band. All Good? will be their first full-length release since 2016’s The Gamble and partner album Oddments of the Gamble.

Born in 1945 in Munich, Herbert Laszlo Laser moved to Berlin in the 1960s, merging the city’s jazz rhythms with his own pioneering electronic soundscapes. ‘Laserjazz,’ a term coined for this unique fusion, saw its peak in the early '70s, powered by his revolutionary instrument, the Synthar, and an inventive approach deeply influenced by his background as a watchmaker, a craft in which he was better known as Hermann Laser. Drawing inspiration from the pulse of ticking clocks in his workshop, his blend of craftsmanship and experimentation, together with the Synthar, became the hallmark of his style. Despite being a trailblazer in the German capital’s notorious underground scene, Laser remains largely unrecognised, a cult figure – at best – until his passing in 2016.

Nonkeen’s All Good? can be traced back to a serendipitous encounter between the band and Laser in the summer of 2007, when the three musicians, having long admired Laser from afar, stumbled upon him performing in a small, dimly lit tent during a Berlin music festival. A small crowd was already captivated by his harmonic mélange, but Laser’s Synthar unexpectedly began to malfunction and, amid a particularly intense sequence, started emitting not only distorted sounds but also sporadic electric shocks. Despite the obvious danger, a stubborn Laser continued to play, determined not to let technical difficulties derail his performance. Unfortunately the situation escalated when a visibly substantial spark shocked him, causing him to momentarily falter. To gasps from the crowd, Laser regained his composure and, albeit with noticeable effort and his hands still trembling, finished his set.

Afterwards, Frahm, Gmeiner, and Singwald, who’d watched with a mixture of awe and concern, found Laser backstage, slightly disheveled but inspecting his beloved Synthar for damage. With genuine concern, Singwald asked, “All good?” and Laser, despite his pain, reassured them a wry smile, adding “It’s always good when you can play another note.”

Tracklist:

1. I'm Sure
2. That Love
3. Will Never
4. Be A
5. Product
6. Of Plasticity
7. Exclamation
8. Mark