Denmark’s trio Efterklang share new single & video "Dragonfly" from album 'Windflowers', out Oct 8 on City Slang.
Today Denmark’s much celebrated trio Efterklang have shared a second single and video from their forthcoming album, ‘Windflowers’, which is set for release on October 8th through City Slang. They have also announced North American tour dates, in addition to the previously announced UK and European shows.
For over twenty years, Efterklang have been pushing the barriers of experimental, electronic, emotional chamber-pop. Announcing their sixth studio album ‘Windflowers’, their first for City Slang, the Danish trio of Mads Brauer, Rasmus Stolberg and Casper Clausen continue a creative journey that’s brought them closer together, even as their lives grow apart. The album sees their many years of collaboration and experimentation distilled into some of their finest and most direct melodic moments to date.
Following previous single, "Living Other Lives", latest cut "Dragonfly" explores the ephemeral nature of love. Channeling the album's motifs of hope and change, it celebrates the idea of love being constantly up in the air, unable to be caught. Singer Casper Clausen has always been fascinated by dragonflies; though they have legs most cannot walk so they are almost constantly in flight, rarely resting. The dragonfly is a metaphor for love as a monumental thing that is difficult to hold in one place, how it cruises around and you never quite know where it is until it lands right in front of you.
Clausen started the song early in the pandemic and immediately thought of Karen Beldring, a singer he had performed with in Copenhagen months back. He was enchanted by the power of her voice and when Efterklang chose to record it out of the pile of demos they accumulated during the pandemic, Clausen knew he had to call her to collaborate. The result is an infectious, distilled, ethereal electronic pop song, driven by the intertwining voices of Clausen, Beldring and long-time collaborator and live-band member Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė (from Merope).
The accompanying video was directed by Søren Lynggaard Andersen, who also created the video for "Living Other Lives". Efterklang's Rasmus Stolberg says of the video,
"it features the three of us alongside our live-band members Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, Bert Cools, Øyunn and Christian Balvig who all have contributed significantly to the making of our new album.
It was Indre who had the idea of featuring kite flying in the video and shortly after we found a box of abandoned white clothes and then it sort of rolled organically from there.
We were all on Møn for Efterklang’s Sommertræf (Efterklang’s Summer Summit) and took the afternoon and evening off to fly kites, swim and run around and dance silly and un-choreographed in Danish corn fields.
It was a beautiful moment with people we love dearly and I am so thankful it’s been captured so stunning and vibrantly by Søren."
As Efterklang, like most of the world, watched their 2020 summer schedule dissipate, they turned their attention to creating something new. With what felt like all the time in the world and nothing to prove, Casper and Mads set about sketching ideas for songs, just to see where it would take them.
With their ability to bring in guests and session musicians restricted, Efterklang had to challenge their usual creative process and accept their own limitations. The genesis of ‘Windflowers’ was back to basics and became an exercise in putting their vast and dynamic experience to play. Self-producing the record, they reconnected with the playfulness and joy of making music together, embracing their distinct pop sensibilities and creating their finest melodic moments to date. The album finds Casper singing in English again, for the most part. It’s rich and intimate, the sound of three friends finding each other at a time when the world around them felt unstable. The record is about existing, alone, together and in nature. It’s about reconnecting, and letting each other grow.
Efterklang’s constant innovation and openness for collaborating extends past the band’s core members and into the world of the listener. Across their history, the group has engaged in ideas that break tradition, introducing their audience as part of the creative process. Now sharing new music through their Developed platform, fans are invited to collaborate and respond as they listen to the new tracks for the first time. Collaboration and community has always been the compass of Efterklang, and the group keeps looking for new ways to build a meaningful correspondence with their audience, to be inventive and inclusive.
“We don’t want to play to people, we want to perform and make music with people,”
Rasmus explains.
After all their years together, Mads, Casper and Rasmus share the real intimacy of family. ‘Windflowers’is proof that connection and community can triumph over adversity, and the result is something truly beautiful.
Photo by Dennis Morton
‘Windflowers’ will be released on October 8th through City Slang.
Pre-order it here.