Efterklang is a band from Copenhagen, Denmark. We consist of 5 core members (Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen, Thomas Husmer, Rune Mølgaard & Rasmus Stolberg) who has played together since 2001. Performing live & during the most recordings, we are joined by our talented & patient friend Niklas Antonson (trombone) you will also find Anna Brønsted, Frederik Teige and Peter Broderick in our live-band. In addition, a lot of generous musicians, glorious artworkers & fearless instruments has participated on the records & made us more than we actually are. Among our key contributors is Karim Ghahwagi a filmmaker who has made a vast number of collage films for our live shows and a video for Swarming. See some of his works in the Download section.

We are signed to the British The Leaf Label. Through Leaf our music is distributed worldwide - a list of our releases can be seen in the Discography section.

Besides Efterklang, we also run the record label Rumraket. So far the roster includes: amiina - Cacoy - Erik Levander - Grizzly Bear - Kama Aina - Slaraffenland - Taxi Taxi! - Canon Blue and Our Broken Garden.

Biography, fall 2007

Parades is the highly anticipated second album by Denmark’s Efterklang, the follow up to their underground hit of 2004, Tripper. Comprising 11 majestic, otherworldly pop songs, Parades manages to be both magnificently ambitious and engagingly intimate; a breathtaking panorama of sound with few clear antecedents. Music with no boundaries. In a parallel universe, songs like ‘Mirador’ and ‘Caravan’ would be number one forever…

Though the music that became Parades was recorded concurrently with the critically acclaimed (and already collectible) Under Giant Trees mini-album that preceded it in April, the latter was essentially a summation of songs the band had pieced together on tour in 2005. Parades is cut from a different cloth: this is all new material spun from raw ingredients, carefully stitched and lovingly embroidered with fine detail. If you let yourself be enveloped, this living tapestry could take years to unpick.

Childhood friends Casper Clausen, Mads Brauer and Rasmus Stolberg grew up on the small Danish island of Als, close to the German border. Fuelled by youthful ambition, the trio moved to Copenhagen where they were joined by Rune Mølgaard and Thomas Husmer, forming Efterklang in December 2000. Early on, the band instituted a self-sufficient working method that they still apply to everything they do: writing, recording, producing and organizing every element of their music and performance from their Copenhagen bunker.

With the release of Tripper in 2004, Efterklang established themselves as a band apart. The record mixed multilayered vocals, electronic rhythms and string arrangements into a series of emotionally charged orchestral movements containing grand romantic flourishes. Tripper stands as the fastest selling debut album in The Leaf Label’s history, and Efterklang went on to become one of Denmark’s best loved groups (Under Giant Trees debuted at number one on their home country’s singles chart).

Work on Parades began in late 2005 with a series of simple song sketches. Then, they began to develop. The recording itself took 18 intense months and involved more than 30 guest musicians, including a string quartet, a brass quintet and three separate choirs. The band describes their writing and recording method as “one long process of sculpturing; adding, stretching or subtracting the pieces of each song, finding the right melodies to guide the different pieces and instrumentation of it all.” The album title refers to this approach; the notion being that each song is an assemblage of separate celebratory events, brought together as a accomplished whole. As the band describes it, “We like the idea that these songs are a huge parade moving past the listener – each section creating a new experience, an individual room of a house. Yet all the elements fit together, so you get a sense of the entire structure as the elements shift and coalesce.”

Unlike previous recordings, the band relied less on digital techniques and went for a palatial sound by recording in large rooms. A boys’ choir and a church organ were recorded in a church, while other instruments were recorded in their studio bathroom and hallway; others in an echo chamber. Darren Allison (who worked on My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, and Ladies and Gentlemen… by Spiritualized – records that surely need no introduction) mixed the album on analogue equipment with Efterklang’s Mads Brauer, distinguishing the minutiae of sound while keeping the bigger picture of each song firmly in focus.

Parades features similarly lavish artwork to Under Giant Trees, by Danish artists Hvass&Hannibal and UFEX. Like a day-glo Hieronymus Bosch, the design carries through the musical idea of minuscule detail on an epic scale.

Efterklang will take their stunning eight-person live show on a World tour this autumn that will continue until late next year, with numerous festival appearances planned for summer 2008.

Like a gigantic piece of musical theatre, Parades is a remarkable achievement, dense and diverse, and clearly a lot of fun to put together. You’ve never heard anything like it.

1. Polygyne
2. Mirador
3. Him Poe Poe
4. Horseback Tenors
5. Mimeo
6. Frida Found A Friend
7 Maison de Réflexion
8. Blowing Lungs like Bubbles
9. Caravan
10. Illuminant
11. Cutting Ice to Snow

Efterklang:

Mads Brauer - electronics, production, mixing and more
Casper Clausen - vocals, multinstrumentalist, production
Thomas Husmer - drums, trumpet, percussion
Rune Mølgaard - piano
Rasmus Stolberg - guitar and more

beloved live-band members:
Niklas Antonson – trombone, multinstrumentalist
Anna Brønsted – piano, vocal
Peter Broderick - violin, multiunstrumentalist
Frederik Teige - guitar, choir

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

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

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