what a superb festival!
Bjørk! Arcade Fire! Akron/Family! Turboweekend! Analogik!

and we have to mention all the bands we were involved in as well! Because they did a fantastic job all of them! Tenniscoats / Slaraffenland / Maher Shalal Hash Baz / Grizzly Bear / Taxi Taxi! / Kama Aina / Nika Soup & Saya Source and not to forget Nikaido Kazumi having never seen her perform before this was possible the biggest experiece of the festival! All of these names were presented on the festival through us and 4 of them are on our label Rumraket.

also I will never forget the 100% spontaneous concert Nika Soup & Saya Source played in the Lounge scene during the powercut! Kama Aina, Bill Wells and Ueno from Tenniscoats were the backing band and it was just magical! if anyone have pictures please send them!!

a superb festival indeed!

here is a picture of the original score for “Danske” (danish) – one of Tori Kudo´s latest compositions. He wrote it after he visited the Danish National Museum. Seing Maher Shalal Hash Baz premiere this song in Malmø yesterday at the Full Pull preview and afterwards receiving the score from Tori as a gift was a nice wrap of an incredible week!

Sad news indeed. Ryo Kato known to us as DJ Klock, or just Klock, is no longer here. April 10th he decided to leave this life. We hope he has found peace where he is now.

Klock was 1/3 of Cacoy, the Japanese trio who in February 2006 released the album Human is Music in Europe on our label Rumraket. An album that to this date still stands as one of the absolute favorite albums among us Efterklang people. Since 2004 we have listened to the album regularly with constant joy – so this is indeed sincere and a fact.

Cacoy – Human is Music

We were presented to the Cacoy album in the fall of 2004 and a year later when Klock and Saya and Ueno (from Tenniscoats) gave us permission to release this album in Europe (three years after it´s initial release in Japan) it was like a little dream that came true for us. We will never forget them for trusting us and for letting us work with them.

Through Cacoy we learned about the artist Dj Klock. We are glad that we have been presented to all of this music. Klock has an impressive discography behind him as a soloartist on great labels such as Sublime, Revirth and Ropeadope and together with his wife Yuki, he also ran his own Clockwise Records. All of his works are indeed worth listening to – allthough they can be difficult to find here in Europe. The albums I know best are:

San (Ropeadobe, 2006)

Sensation (Revirth, 2004)

These two albums display Klocks magnificent talent. He was a master of turntablizm and a master of dry constantly moving beats. Even more important he was an aesthetic and his combination of musical skills, artistery and flair for moods and composition was unique. His ability to see music as an art and not just as entertainment makes him a rare artist that will be missed. I can also recommend his Rainbow Trilogy (cd, vinyl and tape) – a very interesting project under his other name Turntabrush.

Klock visiting me in Copenhagen – Sep 2006

My relationship to Ryo Kato existed almost mainly through his music. On one single occasion I got to meet him, when he in september 2006 visited us here in Copenhagen. He played at a Rumraket night and what he did with his three turntables and effects still stands very clear to me. I know there are more of his kind around the world, but I have never witnessed anything like that with my own ears and eyes.

After the concert Ryo stayed in my apartment and next day, we walked around Copenhagen in beautiful sunshine for hours before he was off again to another city. As much as Im sad that I never will have the chance to meet him again, Im very grateful I at least got to meet him this one time.

In the end Ryo was touched by an unbreakable depression. DJ Klock leaves behind him wife and kid and a musical legacy. He will be remembered and missed.

Dear everyone – Hope you all are well…

For the first time in our tiny history, we have spent a whole year only on recording. Despite of a few sentimental jam sessions and late night pling plong, we haven’t played a single concert at all in 2006. It’s been a great pleasure and also a need for us, to collect all our focus and energy on these specific studio projects and make sure the result would/will come out just the way we want it to be. So far and by the end of this now old year, we are all quite satisfied with the results.

In the beginning of 2006 we finished recordings for The One- Sided LP that just has been released on the lovely Burnt Toast Vinyl label. Later in 2006 we finished recordings of 5 new songs for our new mini album “Under Giant Trees” which will be released around March on The Leaf Label in a very beautiful and limited packaging. The whole year we have also worked intensively on our new full-length album and it is shaping up nicely though a little slower than expected due to the intractable genies of perfection and studio tantrums…

We expect to be able to release the album sometime in the last half of 2007. This is also when we will appear as a live band again! After all this time behind walls and computer screens, we really cant wait to play live again. So hopefully when the recordings are all done, 2007 will bring us to a lot of old and new places in the company of sweet people. It’s been such a long long time…

Besides all these Efterklang recordings in 2006 Mads and Casper produced and participated on other projects and they also did their first film score for the danish animation movie Princess which should be out now in different parts of the world. Just a few weeks ago Mads and Casper got nominated for best film score of 2006 in Denmark by the Danish Film Academy!

Rasmus has been keeping himself busy with our Rumraket label and this years fantastic releases by Grizzly Bear (“Horn of Plenty” 2xCd in the UK), Cacoy (“Human is Music” CD & digital in Europe) and recently Kama Aina (“Club Kama Aina” CD and digital in Europe). On top of that Rumraket hosted a fund-raising for Erik Levander and his damaged hard drive – 1100.. was collected but unfortunately the drive could not be saved – read more here. We still hope to be able to release Erik Levander´s second album in 2007. In the fall of 2006 Rumraket signed the Swedish twin duo Taxi Taxi! who will release an EP in the spring.

In January 2007 Rumraket will release a very special single by our friends amiina
from Iceland. It will be available on 12″vinyl (with a bonus track), CD and already now you can download it on iTunes.
This will be the first of quite a stack of Rumraket releases in 2007 – so watch out!

And not to forget one of this years biggest experiences for us; when Rune and his wife Helena gave birth to their first child son; Alfred. He is a true gentleman and the sweetest thing we have ever met!

All the best wishes for a bright new year and goodbye to the old one!

efterklang

ps. A huge thanks, to all of you, who have been sending us kind emails and messages in 2006 – please keep on doing so, they make us very happy…