Plexiglass Efterklang

• 1 Circles 03:59
• 2 Laughing in the Rain 04:20
• 3 Limited Memory 05:10
• 4 Rain Take Me Back Himalaya 04:27
• 5 Brænder 02:17
• Total Runtime 20:13

Info for Plexiglass

The ‘Plexiglass EP' holds five new Efterklang songs that showcases a more introspective and abstract side to the Danish trio’s work. Songs like Laughing in the Rain and Brænder also offers moments of hopeful light, as heard on the band’s most recent album ‘Windflowers’ (City Slang, October 2021).

Speaking on the new collection, Efterklang’s Casper Clausen comments: “Plexiglass is a mid-summer bouquet of various kinds - new and older song seeds we've nurtured and bred in cohesion with each other, with help from so many dear and talented friends. Plexiglass feels like the darker side to Windflowers, a place where we dared to stare a bit deeper into the shadows of our sound and songwriting. At times it propels me back to our early work on Tripper and Parades, for example the glitchiness of "Rain Take Me Back Himalaya” and the journey of “Limited Memory”- I’m very grateful that these songs found a way to join each other on Plexiglass.”

For over twenty years, Efterklang have been pushing the barriers of experimental, electronic, emotional chamber-pop. The Danish trio of Mads Brauer, Rasmus Stolberg and Casper Clausen continue a creative journey that keeps bringing them closer together, even as their lives sprouts and grows apart.

In usual Efterklang style the new EP features plenty of guests and collaborators. “Rain Take Me Back Himalaya” features long time friend of the band Karl Hyde of Underworld on guitar and “Limited Memory” features composer and vocalist Katinka Fogh Vindelev who the band previously has worked with on the albums Magic Chairs (2010), Piramida (2012) and Leaves: The Colour of Falling (2016). “Circles” contais samples from the danish electronic music pioneer Knud Viktor’s albums Ambiances & Images from the early 1970´s (re-issued in 2017 by IDL (The Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology).

Øyunn, drums, vocals
Christian Balvig, piano, synthesizer
Bert Cools, guitar
Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, vocals (“Laughing in the Rain”, “Limited Memory”)
Rune Mølgaard, piano (“Brænder”)

Efterklang
Marking the group’s return seven years after their last studio release – a period of transition, of high adventures and creative questing – Efterklang’s fifth album Altid Sammen is their finest yet. Bold and ambitious, yet engaging on a primal and emotional level, the album is steeped in the experimentation that has been their trademark since their debut album, 2004’s Tripper, but is more elemental than they’ve yet dared to be. The music of Altid Sammen (the title means “Always Together”) is deep and sonorous. Their trademark tapestry of acoustic and electronic elements, woven together so expertly one hardly notices how each strengthens the other, has never sounded more accomplished. Sounds from the baroque and digital eras strike perfect harmonies together, bound together by Casper Clausen’s warm, weathered and wise vocals. The album will be released on the band's own label Rumraket in the Nordic and on 4AD in rest of the world.

Approached by B.O.X – a Belgian ensemble founded by lute player Pieter Theuns, performing new music with baroque orchestration – Casper Clausen (vocal), Mads Brauer (synth, electronics) and Rasmus Stolberg (bass) composed material for a joint performance at Theuns’ own mixMass festival in Antwerp in January 2018. But the music they began writing for this performance soon took on a life of its own. The performance left Efterklang fired-up to commit this work to tape. “We walked offstage feeling super-elevated,” says Stolberg. “Let’s get into a studio and document this.” Their initial plan was to record the album solely in collaboration with the B.O.X ensemble. But later that summer the trio appeared at Berlin’s PEOPLE festival, a 7-day experience where musicians from around the world (including Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner, Beirut’s Zach Condon, Justin Vernon, Feist and the Dessner brothers, along with 150 more artists) collaborate and perform in various new ensembles. As well as performing with various friends new and old, the trio also played together as Efterklang, revisiting the new songs, but this time with other musicians onstage. “And we realised then, these songs deserved our full attention – the scope of possibilities was inspiring,” says Stolberg. “It was time to make a new Efterklang album.”

This album contains no booklet.