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Dane’s Create Their Opus

Breaking down airy music is a tricky trap. It’s glacial pace always seems to offer a peg for us to hang our critical hats upon. Barring actually finding the artist’s touchstone, it’s easy to disconnect and criticize. Much is the case with Efterklang and their mellow watercolor art; creating enough atmospheres you could choke on its stuffiness. In their latest, Magic Chairs, they do well to quiet their detractors by understanding the score on the album is more important than any assessment score given.

While the band’s previous releases were much weightier on the rock, Chairs is supplemental ambience - like a pop adaptation of MuteMath. But to their detractor’s surprise, these Danes have grown. Something different this time around is a focus on melodies flanking their orchestral echoes. Where their 2007 Parades release had the landscapes down to a science, it came unglued once they tried to build on vocals. Not the case with Chairs. Instead this time they do right by indulging in the composition of each track as an overall emotionally traverse magnum opus. Take ‘Mirror Mirror’ as the perfect example: with its swooping chorale and building bewilderment – a faint cry from its delicate opening violins. This is an album that can tug at every string of emotion without batting an eye.

It’s true; you won’t have to squint to recognize their signature lush chamber sounds like ‘Scandinavian Love’ with playful horns and sweeping strings. And while ‘Modern Drift’ shows how they’ve evolved, a creation crammed with vigorous strings and keys, there are undeniable aloof growing pains as heard in ‘Alike’ or ‘Raincoats’ that can leave a void between track and the listener – a rare case in Chairs.

Efterklang are more of a musician’s artist. You can heed the shades in each work and it can easily be seen as complicated brush strokes to the jaded ear. Perhaps we should come to expect this. And like a piece of art, not everyone is going to understand it. But you should definitely take the time to marvel at Magic Chairs.

Sean Kendall