Efterklang: Windflowers (Album) – City Slang – 2021
Genre: Indi / Alternative
Intro:
Efterklang – A three-man band from Copenhagen in Denmark. And when it comes to music from Denmark, the attentive music fan immediately becomes curious, because the qualities of Danish music icons like WhoMadeWho or Be Svendsen are almost legendary. So much can be told beforehand: Efterklang easily joins the ranks of outstanding Danish acts, but yet with Efterklang it’s different, completely different.
When Efterklang – like everyone else on this planet – had to watch how the pandemic pulverized the usual life including all routines between tour, album and tour, they used the time and focused their attention on creating something new – a new album. Time they had enough, countless time, during this difficult time 24 hours initially felt like 2 days in a row, and so Casper and Mads started to create sound sketches, simply to see where this would lead to. During this process, they found themselves constantly referred back to themselves in their creative flow, since bringing in guest and session musicians was simply impossible during this time.
The album Windflowers:
Every year when spring arrives in Denmark, a sea of tiny flowers blooms on the Danish forest floor. They are like an explosion of color, a symbol of hope and change, disappearing as quickly as they have come, outlining the constant cycle of nature. Colloquially they are known as „windflowers“ and the album „Windflowers“, released on 08 October 2021, is indeed a magnificent ocean of sound flowers. This is an immensely dense, multi-layered album, with beautiful vocal lines, insane attention to detail, all wrapped up finely in a cozy musical Scandinavia hoodie that protects us wonderfully from the inclemency out there.
Electronics are used in masses, but this harmonically melancholic autumn/winter sound has hardly anything to do with upbeat dance rhythms, if you leave out the fantastic track „Living Other Lines“. If you are looking for comparisons, you will have to search for a very long time and you will have to take a long journey back into the musical history. In the early to mid eighties the time travel slows down noticeably and the fan becomes successful with his search for comparisons with avant-garde progressive, art and post-rock à la Klaatu and above all Talk Talk.
The Bottom Line:
The album tells about our existence, being alone, being with each other and the deep connection with nature. The core message is to find each other again and to make each other strong to be able to draw new strength together. Without a fixed date and without limits, Efterklang were able to let their creativity run free in the creation of this musical jewel. „Windflowers“ is inspired by the pure joy of music, predicate especially valuable. The album is coming along in 24 bits / 44.1 kHz format and sounds absolutely fantastic in every respect.
Facts:
Artist: Efterklang
Title: Windflowers
Format: Album
Label: City Slang
Release Date: 08. Oktober 2021
Genre: Alternative / Indie
9 Tracks • 39m 41s
Available at Qobuzin Hi-res
24-Bit / 44.1 kHz – Stereo
My Test Equipment:
Studio 1 (High End):
- 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
- 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
- 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (rear)
- 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (subwoofer)
- 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
- Auralic Altair (audio streaming client with max. 32 bit / 384 kHz)
- NVIDIA Shield Pro with Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz for Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
- AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
- Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
- Yamaha MX-A5000 (Power Amp)
- Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision