Videos

EFTERKLANG share video “Hold Me Close When You Can”

• 11th Nov 2021

Today Efterklang have shared a glimpse at their forthcoming album, ‘Windflowers’, which is set for release on October 8th through City Slang.

‘Hold Me Close When You Can‘ was first released through Efterklang’s Developed platform in May 2021 as the first in a series of collaborative events – the second starts this Wednesday, September 22nd. For 5 days fans and friends were invited to collaborate by responding to the song using their eyes and cameras while listening to the song. In total more than 800 people from 49 different countries co-created this video by taking photos while listening to the song. All these photos now form the music video for ‘Hold Me Close When You Can’. The photos have been put together to the music by editor Matt Felstead and the director credit is shared by all contributors.

Commenting on the video, the band said: “Efterklang Developed and the video for “Hold Me Close When You Can” is not about presenting our music in the most impressive and flashy way, it is about collaborating. It’s something we realise has become centre of how we operate as a band. We want to create together with the listeners and concert attendees and we keep searching for ways of doing this.

After so much distance and time away from everyone who listens to our music it felt great to do something different with the purpose and potential of bringing people closer together. We built a WebApp called Efterklang Developed with Arnold & Michael, who run MARRIAGE in London. In the App you hear a new song for the first time before it’s official release, and at the same time you respond by taking photos, of whatever you want to capture at that moment. So all of the photos are taken by close to 1000 of strangers who all where listening to Hold Me Close When You Can, and now they’ve become the video for that same song. We loved the simplicity and the symmetry of it, and we were excited to see how people interpret the music through their own reality, it was amazing to see what everybody gave to each other.”

“Hold Me Close When You Can“ marks a striking moment in the track list of their new album ‘Windflowers’. Casper devised the chords and melody during a radio soundcheck in Brussels in January 2020, where Rasmus immediately heard its potential. The song was saved as a voice note and the band battled with structure and instrumentation in the studio, working with live band member Christian Balvig on the string arrangements, until it all unfolded before them. Beautiful, eloquent, and rousingly sentimental, Casper’s voice is both fragile and full of power. “It’s a really emotional song and it still can get to me” says Mads. 

Efterklang Developed allows listeners to hear a new song for the first time before its official release, and to respond to it by taking photos while the track plays. “We loved the simplicity and the symmetry of it, and we were excited to see how people interpret the music through their own reality. It was amazing to see what everybody gave to each other,” say Efterklang about the video.

Wednesday, September 22 will mark the start of Event #2. Fans, friends and curious souls are invited by the band to listen to the unreleased album track ‘Alien Arms’ while responding with their cameras until September 29. People are encouraged to sign up here to take part in Event #2 and help create the visual world for the new song. Collaboration and community has always been the compass of Efterklang, and the group keeps looking for new ways to build a meaningful correspondence with their audience, to be inventive and inclusive. “We don’t want to play to people, we want to perform and make music with people,” Rasmus explains. 

On their sixth studio album ‘Windflowers’, their first for City Slang, the Danish trio continue a creative journey that’s brought them closer together, even as their lives grow apart. With their ability to bring in guests and session musicians restricted, Efterklang had to challenge their usual creative process and accept their own limitations. The genesis of ‘Windflowers’ was back to basics and became an exercise in putting their vast and dynamic experience to play. Self-producing the record, they reconnected with the playfulness and joy of making music together, embracing their distinct pop sensibilities and creating their finest melodic moments to date. The album finds Casper singing in English again, for the most part. It’s rich and intimate, the sound of three friends finding each other at a time when the world around them felt unstable. The record is about existing, alone, together and in nature. It’s about reconnecting, and letting each other grow. 

After all their years together, Mads, Casper and Rasmus share the real intimacy of family. ‘Windflowers’ is proof that connection and community can triumph over adversity, and the result is something truly beautiful.