The Underground of Happiness

You might remember a couple of weeks ago, the Efterklang gig with Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra in Cork was mentioned in these pages. Playing guitar on stage that night was American Daniel James , whose own album Rumspringa comes out at the end of the month under his stage name Canon Blue , through Efterklang's label Rumraket and Temporary Residence in the U.S.. James has been a touring member of Efterklang for the last couple of years and the album was recorded with them at their Copenhagen studio. Those other great Efterklang acolytes, Amiina , are apparently heavily involved throughout the album, which is great news. The first song from the album to see the light of day is below - follow the link below for a free download. If you're looking for a genre tag, let's go with orchestral pop . Although I have to say there are intriguing hints of Ennio Morricone in the choral work in this tune, as well as some unexpected traces of Eastern music floating in ...

So Efterklang came to town over the weekend (that's Rasmus and Casper on stage in the photo above). They brought some friends with them - about 17 in fact. Here's the crowd from a photo taken before their February performance at the CrossLinx Festival in Holland . I found that photo on Morris Kliphuis' blog, http://morriskliphuis.blogspot.com/2011/07/efterklang-in-cork.html , who was part of The Messing Saxes onstage, I believe. That's Daniel Bjarnason in front, centre of that pic. He's the one who made these arrangements for the Efterklang songs, and also played a Rhodes (I think it was) onstage. Aswell as Casper, Rasmus, Mads and Thomas, the core members of the band, there was also Daniel James (aka Canon Blue ) on guitar, Peter Broderick on marimba, violin, vocals, steel drum (has he been listening to Wildbirds & Peacedrums I wonder?) and very possibly some other stuff, Heather Woods Broderick on keys, vocals and flute and a second marimba player who...