Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg, the core trio behind the Danish indie rock group Efterklang, traveled to Piramida, an abandoned mining settlement 1,000 km from the North Pole. They spent nine days harvesting over 1,000 sound recordings and inspiration for their fourth album, Piramida.
The opening notes of “Hollow Mountain,” the album’s first track, were recorded on a found “instrument” in the ghost town. The sound gets much more elaborate than collected sounds, though. Efterklang composed and recorded music in Berlin, and Earl Harvin, Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick added drums/tindersticks, Wurlitzer and strings, respectively. The band caps it off with the 60-piece South Denmark’s Girls Choir.
But even with the grand scale of music, “Hollow Mountain” never loses the haunting, abandoned quality of Piramida.
Piramida is out September 24 via 4AD.
