Efterklang
Childhood friends Casper Clausen, Mads Brauer and Rasmus Stolberg grew up on the tiny Danish island of Als in the Baltic Sea. With their shared love of electronic and classical music, the trio created a niche within the world of leftfield pop and art rock, debuting with the album Tripper in 2004. Operating from their Copenhagen bunker, the release defined their sound, based on wistful vocals, fragile melodies and spacious orchestral tapestries.
Subsequently, Efterklang have sought to challenge themselves on each release, from the manicured downtempo indie-pop of Parades to their Gareth Jones-produced third album Magic Chairs and the alluringly expansive Piramida. In 2012, the group expanded to create the Liima project before returning to work on their latest beautifully crafted release Altid Sammen, inspired by acoustic sessions with the baroque ensemble ‘B.O.X’.
Prior to this new album you released two under the name Liima which was, effectively, Efterklang under a new guise…
“Well there’s a fourth guy in Liima – the drummer Tatu Rönkkö, otherwise it’s more or the less the same people. We took a break from Efterklang to get out of the cycle of making albums and touring because, even though it’s wonderful, you have to say no to a lot of projects and we wanted to be more open to different things.”
How did you avoid the inescapable comparison to Efterklang?
“The first thing we did was to compose an opera with the Danish composer Karsten Fundal, and it was very exciting to have real time to invest in that different art form. Then we were invited to a festival to make some music with Tatu Rönkkö’s live band, so we went up to Finland one summer and began writing in a cottage next to a lake. We worked in a very different way to Efterklang, Liima was born and before we knew it we were making albums and touring again [laughs]. We didn’t intend to do that, it just happened organically.”
In what way did you approach the production of this differently?
“From the inside, the distinction is very clear because
