Category Archives: Blog

Efterklang announce sixth studio album, Windflowers, and share first single ‘Living Other Lives’

27 June 2021

Photo: Dennis Morton

Longtime favourite band Efterklang are back with their sixth studio, following 2019´s stunning Altid Sammen. Entitled Windflowers, the new album sees the trio of Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg continue to venture in new and thrilling musical territories, “embracing their distinct pop sensibilities and creating their finest melodic moments to date”, as the press release explains.

Windflowers will see the light of day on October 8th through City Slang and ahead of it they have shared the first gorgeous single, ‘Living Other Lives’. About this track Casper comments:

“Living other lives started out as a jam in my Lisbon studio during Spring 2020 lockdown. I was playing around with my 404 sampler and I found that kind of groove that makes my head bop – put some samples on it, and I could listen to it forever – a good sign. So I was just having that on loop while scrolling through my instagram feed. The lyrics sort of came out of that moment; living other lives, imagination jumping from one life/image to another, revisiting, updating myself, absolutely bodiless, while scrolling up and up with my thumb. It’s a fascinating world we’re living in, so strangely symbiotic and aware of what everybody’s doing, I feel I’m living multiple lives all at once. Watching all these people expressing and changing themselves far away, out there around the planet.”

‘Living Other Lives’ is offered with a video directed by Søren Lynggaard Andersen, who added:

“I visited Efterklang in the studio when they were in the process of recording their new album. I had packed this old russian 16mm camera and I wasn’t even sure if the camera actually worked, but thankfully it did (sort of). The video that came out of it I feel is a charming and genuine look at the band together in the studio and in the nature of the island of Møn in the south of Denmark.”

Watch the video now.

In other related news, Efterkland have also announced a live stream concert on June 27th as well as several live dates across Europe later this year and early 2022.

Typical Sisters unveil new single ‘Grains’

26 June 2021

Photo: Alexa Viscius

With only two weeks to go before Typical Sisters put out their third album, Love Beam, the trio are keeping us excited with new single ‘Grains’.  While guitarist Gregory Uhlmann lives in LA, bassist Clark Sommers in Chicago and drummer Matt Carroll in Copenhagen, the three have cultivated a creative and personal affinity for each other over the last decade, and the album celebrates their collaboration and friendship.

Listen to ‘Grain’ below and grab Love Beam when it’s out on July 9th through Joyful Noise Recordings.

Attacca Quartet share rework of Louis Cole’s ‘Real Life’, new album out next month

26 June 2021

Photo: David Goddard

Adventurous New York based Attacca Quartet, known for their daring and exhilarating interpretations of works from the realms of traditional and contemporary classical music, are set to release a new album next month. Entitled Real Life, the album sees the string collective of Amy Schroeder, Domenic Salerni, Nathan Schram, and Andrew Yee thrillingly fuse classical and electronic music. An album of electronic music arrangements, Real Life features reworks of tracks from a cast of impressive electronic artists, including Flying Lotus, Louis Cole, Anne Müller, Squarepusher, Daedelus, The Halluci Nation and Mid-Air Thief. To bring the album to life, the ensemble worked with composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League as well as co-producer Nic Hard. Violist Nathan Schram comments:

“We thought about what the dream album could be that we hadn’t been able to make until we got this opportunity and this idea just started to flower; to bring all the different electronic music we listen to, into our string quartet world and to collaborate with a lot of different musicians, particularly Mike League, while using all the possibilities of music technology to make the biggest string quartet album we could. We all dug really deep into our interests and abilities and created an amazing, experimental, rocking, touching album that is Real Life.”

Real Life precedes another album slated for release later in 2021 featuring music by Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and a slew of Renaissance composers.

For now we can satiate ourselves with the latest single lifted from the forthcoming album, the title track by Louis Cole. Of the song, Attacca Quartet said:

“Who doesn’t love a little Louis Cole?! His music is zesty, humorous, and extremely satisfying. His song ‘Real Life’ encapsulates the wild and carefree feelings that we enjoyed so much while making this album.”

‘Real Life’ is offered with a video created by Calypo Spritz. Here it is.

Real Life is out on July 9th through Sony Classical

Listen to Liars’ new single ‘Big Appetite’

25 June 2021

With The Apple Drop on the way, and after sharing ‘Sekwar’, Liars have unveiled a new single from the upcoming album called ‘Big Appetite’. The track comes with an accompanying video, and as with the previous single, Clemens Habicht directed it as a sort of follow-up, pursuing Angus Andrew’s hallucinogenic trajectory. “I thought that spelunking with bats for the ‘Sekwar’ video tested the upper limits of my fear threshold”, Angus explained, “but it turns out having a revved up drill pointed close to my forehead for a day is truly the stuff of nightmares.

Clemens had this to say about it:

“The drill spun the camera at up to 2000rpm, and the very real potential for an accidental trepanation gave the filming an extra potency. The terror experienced by the almost broken but fiercely determined space traveller mixes with the candy colours of a delirious unhinged euphoria, with lucid recollections of band members Cameron Deyell and Laurence Pike joining a more fresh-faced Angus from a distant, optimistic and simpler past.”

Watch the video for ‘Big Appetite’ below.

The Apple Drop is out on August 6th through Mute.

Aquaserge announce new album and share first single ‘Un grand sommeil noir’

21 June 2021

The musical universe of Toulouse’s supergroup Aquaserge is wonderful and thrilling, amalgamating various influences and genres, from pop and 60s/70s rock to free jazz and noise. We’re over the moon to know they have a new album on the way called The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge, set for release on October 15th though Crammed Discs, as part of their celebrated composers’ series Made To Measure.
The band set themselves a challenge, as the press release explains, “drawing inspiration from four major, atypical figures in contemporary classical music from the mid-20th century (Ligeti, Scelsi, Varèse and Morton Feldman), in order to write & record an album which joyfully blurs boundaries between rock and what used to be called ‘serious music’”. Named after a Morton Feldman piece, The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge is also the title of a music theatre show, which they will perform in contemporary music festivals across Europe, including Art Musica in Brussels and Aujourd’hui Musiques in Perpignan.

October might seem far but we can already hear ‘Un grand sommeil noir’, serving as the first glorious taste from the upcoming album. The track is Aquaserge’s interpretation of one of the earliest compositions by pioneering composer Edgard Varèse to a poem by Paul Verlaine. ‘Un grand sommeil noir’ comes with an accompanying video, filmed by Karine Pain and Gaëtan Chataigner and edited by Karine Pain. Take a look.


Matt Evans unveils new single, ‘Firn’, ft. Elori Saxl

14 June 2021

After enticing us with the delicate, poignant and beautiful ‘Arcto 2’, Matt Evans has shared another sublime track from his upcoming album, touchless. Entitled ‘Firn’, the new single features violinist and composer Elori Saxl and is described by Evans as “a nostalgic simulation of an immersive, slow motion snow globe.” ‘Firn’ is offered with an accompanying video directed by Gracelee Lawrence. Here it is.

touchless is out on June 25th through Whatever’s Clever Records.