EFTERKLANG & THE DANISH NATIONAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: PERFORMING PARADES

Probably Denmark's weirdest act, Efterklang is dishing out some of the most singular music from the Northern Europe. Stuck somewhere between Iceland's Sigur Ros and Finland's most exotic Lap folk music, with a dose of serious Bjork, their music is a refreshing sort of post rock, straying away from the usual EITS and GY!BE or Mt Zion realm and in a folk way the Tunng universe at times (Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man), but this is probably due to the fact that both went symphonic and released it. Yes, Efterklang decoded to recreate their previous record Parades to a symphonic orchestra, and chose the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and thus Performing Parades was born.

A superb mini Lp gatefold sleeve with a fascinating drawn artwork with two superbly-designed individual sleeves, the first for the live Cd and the other for the DVD holding the symphonic concert footage, a documentary about it and last but not least?. A bunch of related music videos, most of them a superb animation montage. With such an interesting DVD, it almost renders useless the Cd, but let's face it, watching a DVD while driving?.. Costumes, disguise and conceptual stage set up including the chamber orchestra creating phantasmagorical visualscapes to accompany the strange music, sometimes reminiscent of Tunng's great live presence on stage. Musically as well, there is a bit of Tunng here and there.

In either case, the quintet's weird line-up is partly responsible of their unusual sound. Harmonium,, violin, trombone and a fairly large choir all in one combo will give you strange soundscapes. Efterklang's closest cousin is most likely Sigur Ros, but their palette is less depressing and much wider-scoped than the Hopelandic crew. If you must own just one of their release, this is obviously IT.