The Underground of Happiness

Happy New Year. Just a quick hello to land you with a list of 46* (edit - make it 48) albums that did the rounds many times in here in the past year. Another great year for pop music, I think you'll agree. A couple of other miscellaneous highlights underneath. I'm not bothering with lots of links and pictures and videos in this post - that's what the rest of the blog is for, go digging and you'll find. Most, if not all, of the list have been represented in these pages over the last year. And I might also mention that interviews with Crystal Stilts, Efterklang, (The) Caseworker, Hotels, Josh T. Pearson and Neville Skelly from the year gone by are also over there on the right hand side of the page. I may well have left a few people out, and there were a few borderline cases - if anyone has any particular beef with me on what's below, give me a shout. I'm all on for, like, engagement. Say no more. (I'm making one exception, I can't get enough of this) ...

We had a few extracts from the interview with Casper Clausen , the singer from Efterklang , on the show this week. The full interview is available here. Topics of conversation include Vincent Moon and the making of the film An island , celebrity crushes, the common ground between Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey , the differences between The Leaf Label and 4AD , their collaboration with Daniel Bjarnason and the Messing Orchestra for the Reich Effect Festival at the Savoy Theatre in Cork , the secret location for work on their new album, their Efterkids music education program and being “married” to music. Listen out too for an unexpected rendition of The Beatles’ Penny Lane . AN ISLAND - 3rd TEASER - Vincent Moon & Efterklang from Rumraket on Vimeo . The gig they played in Cork (the night after I did the interview) was a powerful, even emotional event. More thoughts on it here .

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 188 Tues Sept 13 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show here https://rapidshare.com/files/3057731109/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_13-9-2011.m4a Playlist Tune-Yards - Gangsta (radio edit) Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands - Broken up now Tarwater - Inside the ships Atlas Sound - Terra incognita Madam - Someone in love ( playing National Portrait Gallery, London, Sept 16 ) The Dead Trees - Older ( playing St Pancras Old Church, London, Sept 19 ) Interview with Casper Clausen of Efterklang Efterklang Interview Excerpt 1 Efterklang - Alike Efterklang Interview Excerpt 2 Efterklang - I was playing drums Efterklang Interview Excerpt 3 *d'load the full interview here http://conorot.podomatic.com/entry/201...

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...

As you know, Efterklang are playing in Cork this coming weekend, at the Savoy Theatre , Saturday night July 30th. And by the sounds of this, from the Efterklang website , it will be very special. " Efterklang+Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra is a special 17 piece band that debuted at the Cross Linx festival tour in February earlier this year. It is the 7-piece Efterklang live band with Daniel James (of Canon Blue) on guitar, Heather Broderick on piano and Peter Broderick on vibes and steel drum. And then we have the brilliant Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason on Rhodes and then you add a saxophone quartet, a brass quartet and a classic percussionist. This all turns into Efterklang + Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra. We will be playing Efterklang songs with arrangements for the Messing Orchestra by Daniel Bjarnason ." Sounds fantastic on paper, says you, and here's a taste or two of what it might sound like in the flesh (also from the Eft...

A quick update on one of my musical events of the year so far, the Efterklang film made by Vincent Moon , An Island . If this is news to you, it's been mentioned on these pages already, here and here - and here's some other background - In August 2010, French filmmaker Vincent Moon and Efterklang’s 8 piece-live band met up on an island off the Danish coast. The objective was to shoot a film. A film with the same length as an album, and a film full of performances, experiments and collaborations. Over an intense period of 4 days Efterklang collaborated with more than 200 local musicians, kids and parents, creating new performances and interpretations of songs from their album Magic Chairs (4AD, Rumraket 2010). It was all filmed by Vincent Moon who same time conducted several filmic and musical experiments with Efterklang as his dedicated playmates. An Island is an unconventional music performance film and an abstract documentary about a band and an island. The running time...

So we had The Underground of Happiness screening of the Efterklang movie, An island , directed by Vincent Moon . (Sorry if you missed it, but not to worry, read on. Anyway, it was very limited capacity, restricted to the number of people that can fit on my couch, basically - what a select bunch... Check out the website for all the screening details further down the page, and see if you can spot our photo in the gallery here - flickr.com/photos/anisland) It was very enjoyable. As with all music films, it stands on the quality of the music itself, which of course is very good in this case. My 8-year old wondered about the narrative interludes ("Why are they walking in the forest?") but she found plenty of interest in the musical performances. Even the toughest critic in the room (my wife) was won over. I think my own favourite bit was the accompanying children's orchestra during the school sequence, and in particular the "newspaper section" (kids holding newsp...

I must admit the last Efterklang album, Magic chairs , didn't float my boat as much as their previous material. However, the prospect of the band teaming up with Vincent Moon (La Blogotheque) to make a film based on the music of that album, using Danish locations they grew up in, is an enticing one. Here are some trailers from the movie. 1st Teaser 2nd Teaser 3rd Teaser Furthermore, this film is being distributed in an unusual way. You can contact the band if you want to arrange a screening in your part of the world. You'll find all the details below. What a great idea and worth getting behind. http://efterklang.net/home/category/an-island/