EFTERKLANG
Magic Chairs
CAD3X01
4AD 2010
10 Tracks. 43mins47secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Having recently signed to 4AD, after six years in the care of Leaf, for whom they delivered three albums and a handful of EPs, Danish quartet Efterklang have spent the last two and a half years on the road. While Parades had grown organically during lengthy studio sessions, the songs on Magic Chairs were road-tested live during the last year and fine-tuned before the band went in the studio. The basic structure of the songs were laid down by the quartet in Århus, eastern Denmark, before they returned to their Copenhagen studio, once again calling upon a splattering of regular contributors (Peter, Broderick, Heather Woods Broderick, Rune Fonseca Mølgaard, Frederik Teige, Daniel James) to add orchestral textures. The album was mixed in London by Gareth Jones, who has in the past worked with artists as diverse as Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Mogwai, Tuxedomoon, Diamanda Galas, Wire or more recently Grizzly Bear.

Magic Chairs, a reference to a film by Danish-born filmmaker Jørgen Leth, is a much leaner and more mature affair than its predecessor. Continue Reading »

EFTERKLANG & THE DANISH NATIONAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Performing Parades
BAY69
The Leaf Label 2009
11 Tracks. 56mins31secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP Amazon US: CD | LP Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD

When they released their second album, Parades, back in October 2007, Danish formation Efterklang probably had very little idea that they would literally live on it for two years. Right from the onset, Efterklang have truly come to life performing live, and this was undoubtedly key in their moving from the largely electronic textures of their early releases toward much more acoustic and instrument-based. Their 2007 mini album Under Giant Trees, recorded while the band were on tour, established the blueprint for Parades, released a few months later. A much more ambitious effort than its predecessor, Tripper, published in 2004, the album was recorded with a number of additional contributors, including Peter Broderick and Our Broken Garden’s Anna Brønsted, together with a variety of formations and choirs. Continue Reading »

Originally hailing from Portland, Oregon, multi-instrumentist Peter Broderick currently resides in Copenhagen, where he moved to toward the end of last year after Efterklang inviting him to join the band for the tour that followed the release of Parades, their album of last year. Broderick has recently released a beautiful mini album on Swedish imprint Kning Disk entirely made of instrumental piano compositions, and his debut album, Float, is about to be released on Type. We caught up with him as he was about to embark on yet another leg of the Efterklang tour to talk about the multiple facets of his work, living in Europe, recording on a shoe string and endorsing a one-man band persona on stage. Continue Reading »

The Efterklang caravan stopped in London’s Bush Hall on Friday, as part of their two-week-long tour of the UK. Taking their Parades album, released a couple of months ago, on an extensive international tour, the Danish quintet and their troops couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate venue. Formerly known as the Carlton Dance Hall, Bush Hall, in the heart of West London’s Sheppard’s Bush, was built at the beginning of the twentieth Century by William F. Hurndall, a publisher, as a gift for one of his daughters. It has since been a soup kitchen during the Second World War, and was, in the fifties and sixties, turned into a bingo hall and amusement arcade, before being turned into a concert venue at the turn of the millennium. The highly ornate ceilings and walls have been preserved, and grand chandeliers offer a testament to the place’s former grandeur. Continue Reading »

EFTERKLANG
Parades
BAY58CD
Rumraket / The Leaf Label 2007
11 Tracks. 48mins59secs

Formed in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the end of 2000 by Mads Brauer (electronics), Casper Clausen (vocals, various instruments), Thomas Husner (drums, percussions and trumpet), Rune Mølgaard (piano) and Rasmus Stolberg (guitar and various instruments), Efterklang, which translates as reverberation, appeared on the international scene with debut album for Leaf, Tripper, in 2004, although they had previously released an EP the previous year on their own imprint, Rumraket. With Tripper, Efterklang painted intimate soundscapes from clicks, statics and environmental electronics upon which hung orchestral waves and occasional acoustic flourishes, with male and female vocals tightly intertwined with the instrumental parts and a Greenlandish choir adding a further emotional touch to the quintet’s ambitious boreal songs. Followed a digital-only EP, Swarming, in 2005 and a very limited one-sided LP in 2006. Earlier this year, the band returned with Under Giant Trees, a magnificent mini album recorded last year while on tour.

On Parades, Efterklang dress their ephemeral pop songs in much more precious and grand attires. Continue Reading »

A little over three years ago, a formation answering to the mysterious name of Efterklang and hailing from Denmark appeared with their debut album, Tripper, and rapidly gathered critical acclaim and respect. The re-release of the band’s debut EP, Springer, originally released in 2003, a year before the album, and a limited edition one-sided LP, confirmed the band as one of the most interesting acts to have come out of Denmark. Following the release of the superb Under Giant Trees EP earlier this year, Efterklang return with their second album, Parades, on which they have developed an entirely new approach, more focused on acoustic instrumentation. In this interview, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg talk about what influences them, how their new album came to life, running their own record label and playing live is like playing football.

Continue Reading »

EFTERKLANG
Under Giant Trees
DOCK46CD
The Leaf Label 2007
05 Tracks. 29mins11secs

Copenhagen-based outfit Efterklang caused something of a stir as they deployed their elegant pastoral pop songs over the course of Tripper, their debut album, released in the autumn of 2004 on Leaf. In just under an hour, the quintet, formed of Mads Brauer (electronics), Rune Mølgaard (piano), Thomas Husmer (drums) and multi instrumentists Rasmus Solberg and Casper Clausen, the latter also assuming vocal duties, hung up beautiful crafted songs set in scintillating backdrops of pianos, strings and found sounds. The album followed a previous EP, Springer, originally published on the band’s own Rumraket imprint in 2003 before Leaf released it early again in 2005. Efterklang have since released a very limited one-sided vinyl EP at the end of 2006. Continue Reading »