Efterklang is a band from Copenhagen, Denmark. We consist of 4 core members (Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen, Thomas Husmer & Rasmus Stolberg) and we have played together since December 2000. You can read our official and current biography further below.

Performing live and also often while recording, we are joined by sweet and talented people like Niklas Antonson (trombone + more), Peter Broderick (violin + more), Frederik Teige (guitar + more), and Heather Woods Broderick (piano, flute and vocal).

In addition, a lot of generous musicians and fearless instruments have participated on the records we’ve made and made us more than we actually are. Among our key contributors is Hvass&Hannibal, who have made all our artwork since 2006 including the music video for Mirador, stage design for Performing Parades and our T-shirts.

In the original line-up of our band you could also find Rune Mølgaard. He has taken a more secluded role the last few years, but he is still around and he sometimes co-write on Efterklang songs.

We recently signed to 4AD and we will release our third album entitled Magic Chairs through them on February 22nd 2010 (23rd in the US). Before this new deal with 4AD we have released various albums and DVD, EPs and more on British The Leaf Label. A list of our releases can be seen in the Discography section.

Besides Efterklang, we also run the record label Rumraket. So far the label has released music by fine artists like: amiina – Cacoy – Erik Levander – Grizzly Bear – Kama Aina – Slaraffenland – Taxi Taxi! – Canon Blue and Our Broken Garden.

Biography, Winter 2009

Official Efterklang biography for 4AD
By John L Walters

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

Efterklang:
Mads Brauer electronics and various
Casper Clausen vocals and various
Thomas Husmer drums, trumpet, percussion
Rasmus Stolberg bass

beloved live-band members:
Heather Woods Broderick – piano, vocal, flute
Peter Broderick – violin, multi-instrumentalist
Frederik Teige – guitar, sax, choir
Niklas Antonson – trombone, multi-instrumentalist

Discography:

Springer – mini-album, Rumraket 2003
Tripper – album, The Leaf Label 2004
Swarming – digital EP, The Leaf Label 2005
Springer – reissue, The Leaf Label 2005
One-Sided LP – LP, Burnt Toast Vinyl 2006
Under Giant Trees – mini-album, The Leaf Label 2007
Parades - album, The Leaf Label 2007
Caravan – single, The Leaf Label 2008
Performing Parades - live album & DVD, The Leaf Label 2009

on Parades:
“This is their Dark Side Of The Moon, their OK Computer; it’s the album Björk wishes she’d conjured in her mind when realising Vespertine, full of mystery and long-term intrigue. Seriously; this is one 2007’s finest LPs, no question” 10/10 Drowned In Sound

“Parades is one of those truly rare records that… is entirely without fault”
Clash (#38 Album Of Clash’s Lifetime)

“Every so often an album comes along that’s so original it’s difficult to accurately liken it to anything else – even Efterklang’s last album, Tripper, is left behind by Parades” 4/5 Mojo (#23 album of 2007)

“Wholly mesmerizing” 4/5 The Independent

“This is ambitious and exploratory, but very very lovely music” The Word

“More organic than their 2004 debut, Parades is just as richly rewarding” 4/5 Uncut



on Under Giant Trees:

“Short, sweet and almost perfectly formed” 4/5 The Independent

“Intimately immense” 4/5 Uncut

“Like a secret musical language born of ice winds and sequestered myth” 4/5 Mojo

“Majestic… A mighty, thoughtful offering” XLR8R

“Five delicate yet powerfully expansive tracks. Essential” 4.5/5 DJ

“Efterklang produce magical, evocative songs – it’s the perfect mix of improvised and studio sonics” 8/10 FutureMusic

“Under Giant Trees wields an impressive emotional weight that’s likely to carry the listener far out to sea like an unexpected riptide” BBC Experimental

“Cinematic yet incredibly intimate… This is magical, all scintillating interstellar sparkles and the bubbling up of glorious geysers of sound. It creaks with aged weariness and blossoms brilliantly; it is alien yet welcoming, otherworldly yet on your doorstep wearing a bright smile. It’s music to witness the dawning of new ages and the end of days as we know them, music to lose all perspective on and to fall into like a first love” 9/10 Drowned In Sound

on Tripper:

“This is the album to spend your tokens on. Five stars” The Guardian

“Astonishing… With their vibrant, continually evolving arrangements, Efterklang here ensures that, as their name implies, this music should continue to reverberate in your memory for a long time to come” Pitchfork

“Beautifully intoxicating… Efterklang’s music does conjure cinematic ambience without further embellishment: makes everyday moments sound more meaningful” Word

“Tripper burns with a melancholic yearning that belies its cool knowing and aching vulnerability, rendering it utterly beguiling” 5/5 The Irish Times

“The group has a knack for gorgeous, slow-motion build-ups and sudden, shivery drop-offs; the music gleams and drips like an ice sculpture that never stops melting” New York Times