Let me start with Efterklang and Casper Clausen. Encounter with this music and this man was a prelude to another good events. Simple, naively positive, but it works.
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| http://hvasshannibal.dk/ |
An hour later, the problems are far away from me, I’m smiling and I don’t know how is it possible. First time in my life music uplifted me so quickly and effectively. Things have started to make sense again, they are coming back on it's right place in a very simple, naive way. It's hard to describe the concert itself, it should be simply experienced.
A week later, I’m sitting at home and comimg back in memories to this one hour of music. I’m listening to "Magic Chairs” or other albums and I am there again. It’s magic. I enjoy funny acoustic versions, which can be found on youtube:
I look at the webside of design collective Hvass & Hannibal who made artworks and animation of "Mirador". Colorful, hypnotic, positive work.
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| http://hvasshannibal.dk/ |
I'm surfing in the Internet and it turns out that there is no publication about Efterklang in Polish press, not a single interview. As a journalist, I decide to do something about it. Actually, I feel I have to.
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| Autumn in Berlin |
October 2010, my first time in Berlin. The weather is generous to me: city in golden colors of sun and autumn. Thanks to Artur and Zosia I live in the attic, in the white apartment next to Kunst Werke. I spend whole days on long walks with a friend, Ola, we eat cookies with marzipan from the bakery around the corner and discover a great new space. Berlin prepares for us many surprises. In the former fire station, in a dark corner of Krezuberg, it hides for us the concert-pantomime of guitars and a glass of wine, almost for free.
October 25th I'm going to Prenzlauer Berg to meet Casper Clausen and interview him, to find out what the phenomenon of Efterklang is all about. The effect of this unique meeting was published, and here is translation in English (the big part of it):
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| Funny photo of Casper with picture made for Efterklang by Antoni Sieczkowski |
<<Drift with Efterklang
Sunny autumn in Berlin, the picturesque district Prenzlauer Berg. Casper Clausen is coming to the meeting on time, he is correctly pronouncing my name, soaking cookie in black coffee, disheveling hair and exposing it to the sun. He's enjoying the same good energy, which charmed the audience at Efterklang’s concert at the OFF Festival 2010.
We talk about music, which one of the participants of a concert in Katowice identified in enthusiastic words: "My heart is growing bigger and bigger because of it, I think it's going to explode!" Casper likes such simple words and picturesque comparisons, studied pretentiousness is not his “cup of tea”.
We talk about music, which one of the participants of a concert in Katowice identified in enthusiastic words: "My heart is growing bigger and bigger because of it, I think it's going to explode!" Casper likes such simple words and picturesque comparisons, studied pretentiousness is not his “cup of tea”.
Talking about music is necessary to persuade others to listen to it... Sometimes I like areas in which you can not exactly explain what the music is, but you feel it is exciting or magical and you say about it in a natural, not necessarily clear manner, often over a beer. And people understand each other. This is good, too. But talking about my own music is always difficult. I think that many musicians don’t wonder too much, what kind of music they exactly do. They just make what they like. Others compose with the full knowledge that this is pop, rock, or some other genres. We focus as Efterklang on realizing our dreams and on having fun while working. In music we are interested in things that are exciting for us. For an objective listener talking about our work is certainly easier.
I like to think that music looks like a sculpture, and I often use that word to describe it, although it may sound pretentious. Usually, however, it just helps me to explain to others that composing is a specific, long-term process. We compose and record at the same time, we don't sit for hours with a guitar before that. So we put an idea on a computer and then we put some other things on top of it, and then again we take a little bit of the first idea, and then we put something else…and so on. It's something very sticky, like sculpting.
I like to think that music looks like a sculpture, and I often use that word to describe it, although it may sound pretentious. Usually, however, it just helps me to explain to others that composing is a specific, long-term process. We compose and record at the same time, we don't sit for hours with a guitar before that. So we put an idea on a computer and then we put some other things on top of it, and then again we take a little bit of the first idea, and then we put something else…and so on. It's something very sticky, like sculpting.
On the stage under a tent in Katowice I saw the small orchestra perform. Casper played drums and sang, ran across the stage, conducted friends or approached closer to the audience and looked into the eyes of the people. All members of Efterklang enjoyed it, freely improvising. They were in their natural environment.
The concert is the most natural way of presenting our work. We can observe the reaction of people and play along with this response. Working in the studio is something else, is more artificial. We record the songs and only we are the listeners. The tour is sometimes different, we remember it as a holiday in Italy - only the good moments, we forget about a troubles in a kitchen. And concert is a culmination of a day, after spending so much time in a car, in front of a computer or looking out the window. So this hour and a half of playing is full of emotions and magic. In music concert is something extraordinary.
Whenever we are releasing a new album on the market we are obviously excited about what the journalists will say in general. But later, when we go out with our music to the audience, we gain new energy. We look into the eyes of people who are listening to our songs at that very moment. It makes me very happy, the whole band as well.
Whenever we are releasing a new album on the market we are obviously excited about what the journalists will say in general. But later, when we go out with our music to the audience, we gain new energy. We look into the eyes of people who are listening to our songs at that very moment. It makes me very happy, the whole band as well.
I'm telling him that Efterklang’s joy and positive energy on stage suprised me. Their latest album "Magic Chairs" seemed to me quite melancholic. Casper isn’t surprised.
Studio and the concerts are completely different. Studio versions are more complex and full of details, we have more time to create a universe of sounds. During the concert we focus on the community with the audience. Feeling presence of listeners is very important to us. People gathered at the concert are our guides, they are able to change it into something completely surprising. This is unique and fantastic. The concert is a kind of interactive theater, where we like to surprise people.
In Efterklang everyone has a function, not only as a musician. Rasmus Stolberg, for example, is a guitarist and manager at the same time. He takes care of Twitter, Facebook or Myspace to keep in touch with the fans. "A great night - thank you dear! Deeply touched to tears. You have opened me all the chakras", "Come back soon to Poland! You made me speechless, as always" - write the participants of the concert in Katowice. Someone gave the name “Efterklang” to a rat in honor of the band. In Danish it means "echo" or "memory". Accurate name, because the performances of Danes remain in memory for years.
In 2004 in Norway we played our first concert outside Denmark. We only knew that the record was out but we’ve never performed in foreign country. Suddenly there was 500 or 600 people who came to hear and watch our concert. Then we realized that somebody really pays attention to Efterklang. That was an overwhelming feeling. I hope that our music is able to take people for a moment outside time and space in which they currently are. It's very close to entertainment. We are a kind of entertainers and that’s good. I really like to have fun myself. When I’m listening to the music or when I’m watching a movie, I like to drift for a while. Maybe you remember this state of mind from school, when you drifted away from teachers by dreaming about something else…
Casper, Mads and Rasmus have known each other since childhood. They grew up on the Island called Als and started a rock band at highschool. Aged 18 they moved to Copenhagen and created successful Efterklang.
Als is smaller than Bornhom which is well known in Poland and it looks differently but it’s also a very nice island situated in the south of Denmark, very close to Jutland. I’m sure that our background has some influence on our work, but I really don’t know what kind of. Music is the first art form that came natural to me. I started playing drums when I was a kid and it became my hobby. I still think that it’s important to keep it on mind that music is my job and my exciting hobby at the same time.
Efterklang’s music often inspires artists who make animations. Clip to "Illuminant" is probably one of the strangest in the history of musical illustration.
I like very much “Mirador” animation made by Hvass&Hannibal from the “Parades” artwork. It was incredible to see how the artwork suddenly became alive, how it suddenly moves. I like also Toby’s Stretch “Illuminant” animation. Toby is very funny and incredible guy, we know him, he lives in Philadelphia. He did a lot of amazing things. We saw the pictures of how he did the whole video. It took months. He builds his own dolls… Toby thinks in very unconventional way. “Illuminant” may look like “we're just playing weird”, but trust me, he has been thinking about everything and there is the story behind every picture that he took. And you can agree with this story or not, but I’m always appreciate people who are that dedicated to their work.
On lyrics Casper works alone. It’s impossible to find them online or in album artworks.
I write the music and the words at the same time. For me they are equal. When I compose I write some nonsense at the top of the sounds and then I try to find the words in it. So at the end of the day I’m not tapping the text, I’m responding to things that came to me during composing. Lyrics generally are a kind of poetry, but I don’t look at my work like this. There are many people who ask us to send them our texts, but we always excluded them from album artworks. We thought that music and lyrics are so well connected that we shouldn’t separate them at all. And for me it doesn’t really matter if you hear all the words tapped on the piece of paper. For me it’s just a way of communication with choirs for example. I also like to see the nice sentences that came out of nonsense. But the whole text doesn’t have to be so pretty, it has to be connected with music.
I wondered how is it possible that a band that presents itself in the media as a happy team who always have fun, composes quite dark and sad music. Casper seems to be the most cheerful and the nicest man on Earth.
We don’t feel like sad persons, we are happy. But we also have some sentimental feelings. We don’t write very cheerful music, because we think that exciting thing can happen when joyful, cheerful, colorful things are mixed with something deeper and more thoughtful. I believe that mixing light with darkness is interesting. We came from very dark music and moved to brighter things but it is possible that our next album will be dark again, that we will go back to the path that we came from. We just follow our needs, we don’t go through any straight way. >>
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