www.efterklang.net
www.myspace.com/efterklang
Casper Clausen, Mads Brauer and Rasmus Stolberg grew up on the small Danish island of Als. The three friends moved to Copenhagen with the innocent hope of becoming full-time musicians, and soon met drummer Thomas Husmer to form Efterklang late in 2000. Pianist Rune Mølgaard was also in the original line-up.
Efterklang’s first release was Springer in 2003, an EP on the band’s own indie label Rumraket. By 2004 Efterklang had completed their dazzling debut studio album Tripper, which incorporated strings, a brass section, a choir and guest lead vocalists. The same year they signed to the UK-based Leaf Label (Colleen, Murcof, A Hawk and a Hacksaw).
Leaf released Tripper to widespread critical acclaim for the skill and artistry with which they blended vivid acoustic instrumentation with Brauer’s laptop electronics. Tripper’s unique sonic atmosphere captured something special about the spirit of its time. It was popular, too: Tripper remains the fastest selling debut album in Leaf’s history.
Their next album, Parades (2007) was even more ambitious, with 30 guest musicians, including strings, brass and several choirs, layered in the band’s own studio in Copenhagen. After Parades, which took eighteen months of hard work, Efterklang went out on the road with an eight-piece touring line-up, playing more than 130 gigs around the world before the Parades tour ended in December 2008. The experience of touring brought a new dimension to the band’s music. ‘Casper [Clausen] stepped up as front man and his singing became much more extrovert,’ says Rasmus Stolberg (bass).
During this time they also collaborated with composer Karsten Fundal and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra to make an orchestrated version of Parades, premiered in Copenhagen in 2008, a spectacular audiovisual show that was released October 2009 as Performing Parades (Leaf DVD/CD/LP).
Magic Chairs, Efterklang’s third full-length album (and their first on their new home 4AD), is the most ‘band-like’ to date. Where bands like the Beatles, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Talk Talk and Soft Machine started with short pop songs before moving into more extended forms. Efterklang’s trajectory has been in the opposite direction: their early material employed the longer forms, shapes and sounds of classical music. Magic Chairs is the closest they’ve got to a straightforward album of songs, with quirky rockers such as ‘Scandinavian Love’ and the cinematic ‘Modern Drift’.
‘When we made Parades we stayed in our studio for more than a year and a half without playing a single concert,’ recalls Brauer. ‘That made that album really special but we didn’t feel like doing it again.’ Instead, the four core members of Efterklang prepared for their new album in a more organic, rock’n’roll way, by stripping their music down to its core. This was a brave move for a band known for its complex electroacoustics and grandiose orchestrations.
Magic Chairs began early in 2009 with a few of Clausen’s sketches for songs, spending time in Tel Aviv and later Portland, Oregon to develop the arrangements before trying out the new material in front of their American fans. ‘We wanted to get to know the songs before we actually recorded them as opposed to our Parades album, where we got to know the songs while recording them,’ says Clausen.
Returning to Denmark in the spring, the band went to the Feedback Recording studio in Aarhus, to record basic tracks together as a band – a traditional way to make rock albums, but a novel experience for Efterklang. They returned to Aarhus three times in the summer to develop the tracks further. Back home in Copenhagen they completed the tracks, adding final vocals, orchestral overdubs and Brauer’s trademark electronics and processing.
British engineer-producer Gareth Jones (known for his work with Tuxedomoon, Nick Cave and Depeche Mode) mixed Magic Chairs in London, another first for the band, since Brauer usually is in charge of all the mixing. ‘This was a little scary and not easy for us,’ recalls Stolberg, ‘but it turned out amazing.’
Clausen notes that the more straightforward process of recording has resulted in their fastest Efterklang recording to date: ‘It’s our most “humanly alive” album,’ he says. ‘We wanted to display every sound source . . . so that the listener could hear every ingredient of the music.’
Yet Magic Chairs is far from conventional. Though each track, from the brisk ‘I Was Playing Drums’ to the moody, string-driven ‘Natural Tune’, sounds quite different to the others, the album is full of the restless energy and sonic ingenuity that made Tripper and Parades so memorable. But ultimately it’s good pop music, and it seems clear that the new approach to songwriting and recording has brought Efterklang’s instinctive tunefulness to the fore.
John L Walters © 2009