Efterklang & Copenhagan Phil - The Piramida Concert
Efterklang is a genius indie rock group hailing from Sonderborg Denmark. In 2012 they delivered an amazing work on 4AD entitled Piramida. Piramida is a small former Russian mining colony, now ghost town, edging towards the North Pole. Desolate and isolated. The story goes that the members of Efterklang travelled to this remote location to record sounds in the field. They then used these hollow sounds to help create the deeply ambient desolate mood for the original album. Take a listen to the 2012 album and then listen to this amazingly brilliant orchestral concert recording - released in June 2013. Bordering on musical perfection, I envy those who attended the live version - greatly.
The original album received mixed reviews and frankly a lot of poor reviews. Pitchfork came up with a 5.7. The reason - not enough risk taken. Meanwhile, they dole out 9s to Justin Timberlake for basically putting an album out of relatively normal funk. Nothing against the aforementioned Timberlake, who I think is a terrifically funny actor and talented entertainer, but fuck that! Efterklang's original album is a work of art, not some desperate attempt at originality and risk. Musical subtlety is often lost on reviewers as they troll through stacks and stacks of records daily to try and select the next big thing. I feel for them. I'm sure they'd like to have this review back. This is the hit or miss nature of music critique and why you have to dig a bit further sometimes. (not meant to be a huge knock to Pitchfork as, absent Pitchfork, I probably would never heard of Sufjan Stevens or Petit Fantome)
Further in fairness to the lame Pitchfork review, the live version of these tracks is so much better than the original. Recorded in Denmark in October 2012 with the Copenhagan Philharmonic orchestra, the concert versions of the original tracks are no longer stuck to the limited format of a label produced LP. Efterklang is amazing at opening sounds and here their normally brilliant but short openings are often stretched out into entire vignettes. Each one building and building until the song bursts forth. Chilling and very exciting. The opening track "Hollow Mountain" is stretched from its original 5:26 to 7:32 - two additional minutes to build on such a brilliant opening. Brillant is an understatement to describe the10 minute version of the track the "Living Layer" inclusive of Vaelv - a classical piece commissioned by Efterklang and composed by Brooklyn composer Karsten Fundal. Honestly, I won't go through it all because there's so much richness here, it's best to take it in yourself.
Overall, its' Efterklang. It's orchestral and darkly ambient with elements of many darker moods - lonely, industrial, desolate, precise - joined together with the natural moods - symphonic, acoustic, lilting and beautiful - a true cacophony of contradiction. Scott Walker like vocals. Dramatic and beautifully constructed song structures. I can't help but think of one of my favourite 4AD bands when I hear them - Australia's Dead Can Dance. But this is actually on a bigger scale in many ways - at least I think it is.
Efterklang are splitting up and playing a final concert in their Danish hometown at the end of February. I am hoping to join my friend Todd Eckert to see this final bit.
Enjoy this video from the original album. Should give you some idea:
Efterklang - Hollow Mountain video