Foto-© Rasmus Weng Karlsen

Sieben Jahre nach ihrer letzten Studioveröffentlichung melden sich Efterklang mit ihrem fünften Album Altid Sammen (unsere Review gibt es hier!) zurück. Die Dänen sind vor allem für ihren experimentellen Sound und ihre aufwändigen Live-Auftritte bekannt. Auf der neuen Platte hört man eine perfekt aufeinander eingespielte Band: denn auch während der Auszeit von Efterklang hatten Casper Clausen, Mads Brauer und Rasmus Stolberg offenbar Lust, zusammen Musik zu machen und sich gemeinsam weiterzuentwickeln. Mit dem finnischen Percussionkünstler Tatu Rönkkö gründeten sie das Projekt Liima und schrieben sogar eine Oper. Nomen est omen: Altid Sammen bedeutet auf Deutsch so etwas wie „immer zusammen“. Da das Album das erste ist, das die Band komplett in ihrer Muttersprache dänisch veröffentlicht haben, haben wir die Chance genutzt und Sänger Casper Clausen gebeten uns mehr über die einzelnen Songs zu erzählen! Altid Sammen in unserem Track by Track!

1. Vi er uendelig (We are Infinite)

This is the first song of the album Altid Sammen. It was written in my small studio on the other side of the Tejo river in Lisbon where I live

2. Supertanker

This song was written in the same studio, and there you see these huge cargo ships passing down the river Tejo from time to time. In danish these ships are called a “Supertanker” but it’s also a dualistic word that’ve been used a lot in all sorts of danish poetry, referring to “Super thoughts”

3. Uden ansigt (Without a face)

Former piano player and member of Efterklang Rune Fonseca Mølgaard wrote this song with us. He’s been co-writing at least one song on each album we put out in the past 10 years. On Magic Chairs it was Modern Drift, on Piramida it was Sedna

4. I dine ønje (In your eyes)

This song is the only song on the album about lust really, like the little devil on the album I’d say 🙂 It came out of a writing camp we had in a house up on the north coast of Sealand, overlooking this incredible horizon, and Sweden glimpsing in the far distance.

5. Hænder der åbner sig (Hands Opening)

We took a lot of inspiration for this song from our collaboration with the Belgian baroque ensemble B.O.X based in Antwerp. We went to Antwerp many times during the writing proces to play and test out things with them. I’ve been battling tis strange skin disease on the insides of my hands, it breaks out at certain times of the year, depending on the climate and my mental state in some sort of strange symbiosis. I had this vague lyrical theme of hands in all it’s forms and shapes when we arrived to Antwerp, and as a fantastic surprise I lerned at Antwerp means “Throwing hand”

6. Verden forsvinder (The World Disappears)

I think this might be my personal favourite on Altid Sammen. The song came about in that same house on the north coast as I dine Øjne. At the time when we wrote it, my aunt was sick, with what they didn’t now at the time was lung cancer, she passed away 2 months later. Going from being this strong woman to ashes spread across the ocean, in such a short time. That broke my mom down completely, her sister, her soulmate throughout an entire life was suddenly gone. That pain and relation between my aunt and my mom certain lives inside Verden Forsvinder.

7. Under broen der ligger du (Under the Bridge you are staggering around)

This song and Havet Løfter Sig came about in the very end of the album process, in our little studio in Copenhagen, where we’re also running our radio station The Lake Radio from. It turned into this journey song, for some reason, one section just took over the next one, and it sort of creates a different depth to the album journey itself which I really enjoy. This song also features the amazing trumpet player Gunnar Halle from Norway and the Icelandic choir Klidur.

8. Havet løfter sig (The Ocean lifts itself up)

This one is written and recorded on our Pianette in our tiny studio in Copenhagen, it’s the first song we ever recorded on that piano. And was the last song we wrote for Altid Sammen

9. Hold mine hænder (Hold my Hands)

Actually the foundation of this song is based on an old pachelbel chord-progression drawn out and re-ornamented. It was the very first thing that happened on this album, again very inspired by the baroque instrumentation of B.O.X. Mads brought this idea to Lisbon where we wrote the first songs. It also sums up the lyrical essense of the album: Hold my hands, The fog disperses, Everything changes, You see me, I see you