Twenty years after forming, this Danish trio’s seventh studio album takes on ambitious themes collective spirituality and belonging.
The delicate harmonies and gentle melodies are so fragile there’s a sense that something could fall apart at any moment but it just about holds together.
The three permanent members are Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg are present but seven of the nine songs are co-written by pianist and composer Rune Mølgaard despite the fact that he actually left the band after the ‘Parades’ album in 2007.
Mølgaard’s sudden departure came after his embraced the Mormonism of the woman he fell in love with. His song Shelf Break directly references his subsequent crisis of faith after finding the all-consuming demands of the religion too hard to endure. The use of vocoder and spaccato piano communicates the dislocation and disillusionment he felt. He withdrew from the Mormon Church in 2022.
His experiences of breakdown, release and renewal end up influencing the therapeutic tones of the album.
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As well as the Danes, other global contributions further enrich the sonic palette. The opening two tracks - Balancing Stones and Plant feature Guatemalan cellist and singer Mabe Fratti while Getting Reminders has brass instrumental contributions from Beirut. Gifted Italian producer and sound engineer Francesco Donadello also makes an important contribution to the overall sound of the record.
The “everything glows” hopefulness of the final song, To A New Day, may be based on significant amount of wish fulfilment but with the world falling to pieces even blind optimism is welcome.
Efterklang’s website
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