list.co.uk/festival Efterklang | F E S T I VA L F E AT U R E S
P H O T O
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R A S M U S W E N G K A R L S E N
this collective that we have together. There’s a togetherness that we’ve somehow developed over the years, even when we bring in other people we’ve learned to filter it through what we know we all love. [The last five years] have given us schooling. We learned a lot from experimenting; about how to embrace the moment of intuition and improvisation, and not overthink things too much.’
Lyrically, the use of Danish throughout the album also stems from the collaboration with BOX. ‘They’re from Belgium and they speak Flemish, which to a Danish person sounds like a strange version of our own language, like maybe we can understand five percent of it,’ he says. ‘I had been thinking about singing in Danish anyway, and this helped me decide. I was talking to a Portuguese singer who speaks in many languages the other day, and she said it was because she was curious to explore her instrument, her voice. For her it was like a new colour or a new sound, every time she uses a new language.’
Clausen can’t explain what we might expect from the show’s stage set, partly because it’s still in the planning stages when we speak, but for Efterklang the theme of togetherness stretches beyond the music and into the physically communal. ‘There is togetherness in a relationship,’ he says, ‘even when you break up, because your memories are forever. ‘At the same time, there is the political situation today, with cultures having trouble living together, even though we’re the same species and have to come together under the same roof. For us, making music and singing together is an act of spirituality in some way, a way of being together. There’s nothing in the lyrics which is religious or political, but we draw inspiration from all of these things.’
Efterklang, Leith Theatre, 23 Aug, 8pm, £25.
14–26 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 23