tue 10/12/2024

Efterklang: Interview & Video Exclusive | reviews, news & interviews

Efterklang: Interview & Video Exclusive

Efterklang: Interview & Video Exclusive

The Danish band unveil the film for the opening track from new album Piramida

Efterklang: Casper Clausen, Rasmus Stolberg, Mads Brauer (left to right)Rasmus Weng Karlsen

“It’s a place where human beings don’t belong,” says Efterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg. “It’s a very inspiring place, but a very sad place”. The Danish band’s new album, Piramida, is built around sounds they recorded in Pyramiden, a former Russian mining settlement on the island of Spitsbergen, north of Norway, close to the North Pole. It was abandoned in 1998. The climate means nothing decays.

“Hollow Mountain” opens Piramida, and Efterlkang have chosen to premier the film for the track on theartsdesk. “We don’t consider this a video, more a visual piece that follows the song,” explains Stolberg. “We wanted to use all our still photos from Pyramiden”. The piece was specially comissioned from Christoffer Frandsen and Jakob Steen, who work as Oodls.

Efterklang Pirimida Miss Piggy“For this album,” continues Stolberg. “We had the idea to connect with a specific location, where songs could live with the connection. When we were introduced to this place, we connected. Pyramiden is a strange place. We had worked on it for a year to get there. For the first three days, we ran around and banged everything we could found”. They found abandoned oil tanks – one of which they dubbed Miss Piggy (pictured right) – and the world’s most northerly grand piano, sitting forlornly in Pyramiden’s concert hall. Now, there are more polar bears there than people.

Following the release of Piramida, Efterklang will perform the album live with their new collaborator, former Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer Budgie, who they first met while completing the album in Berlin. “If you think of his work with The Creatures,” says Stolberg. “It’s not too far from our music”. Pyramiden itself though, as the film for “Hollow Mountain” confirms, is very far from the familiar.

Visit Kieron Tyler’s blog

  • Efterklang's Piramida is released on 24 September
  • Efterklang play The Piramida Concerts with the Northern Sinfonia: 23 October: The Sage, Gateshead; 24 October: Usher Hall, Edinburgh; 27 October: Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry; 28 October: Dome, Brighton; 29 October: Bridgewater Hall, Manchester; 30 October: Barbican, London

Watch the film for Efterklang's "Hollow Mountain"

 

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters