Piramida
Instead of grand drama and sometimes-bombastic crescendos, we get a quieter, sparer Efterklang on *Pirameda*, which may be largely due to the circumstances surrounding the recording. *Pirameda* is less muscular than 2010\'s *Magic Chairs*—Efterklang\'s first for the 4AD label and first with the more modest scale. The basics for *Pirameda*\'s 10 beautiful and ghostly tracks were recorded before the trio visited an abandoned Russian mining town on an Arctic island. They integrated thousands of field recordings (using empty fuel tanks, architectural debris, etc.) from the island into songs mostly built on gentle, reassuring rhythms, muted percussion, and the unadorned, vulnerable vocals of Casper Clausen. The album is drenched in a feeling of isolation, of exploration and contemplation. There\'s an occasional chorus of angels (as on \"Dreams Today\"), a handful of majestic horns (\"Apples,\" \"Black Summer,\" \"Ghost\"), and shy layers of pianos and graceful synths (everywhere). But it\'s a patient and quietly cinematic affair, one well worth visiting.
Efterklang's new album, which takes its name from an Arctic Circle ghost town to which the Danish band traveled in 2011 to gather field recordings, features a guest violinist, pianist, and a 70-piece girls' choir.
Piramida is a haven, frozen and expansive but ceaselessly alluring, and deserving of far more than just a visit.
In August of 2011, members of Danish indie electro band Efterklang traveled to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, an abandoned Russian settlement near the North Pole.
Efterklang’s intrepid ambition is perhaps their defining characteristic, as evidenced by fourth album Piramida’s titular birthplace: an abandoned mining facility in Svalbard. Decamping to the frozen archipelago for nine days, the Danish trio collected various field recordings, from which they built Piramida’s base – rusted iron struck like xylophone bars; birds and air taped and appropriated.
Most records these days come with a steroid-bolstered PR narrative in tow, but the backstory to Efterklang's fourth studio effort, Piramida, has more traction than those of its peers.
An air of mechanised melancholy hangs over the fourth album from this eclectic Danish band, writes <strong>Betty Clarke</strong>