“Modern Drift”
from the album Magic Chairs
2010
iTunes
The Planet Earth-like video for Efterklang’s “Modern Drift” is a bracing document of life that eases the soul while we’re caught in winter’s frosty clutch. The Danish quintet’s good buddy Kristian Leth made the beautiful short for the equally budding Magic Chairs opener. It’s based on Dyrehaven, den Romantiske Skov (The Deer Garden: The Romantic Forest), a 1970 film by directors Per Kirkeby and Jørgen Leth (Kristian’s father), and follows the titular Danish garden through its four seasons.
Appropriately, “Modern Drift” finds the art-rock ensemble once again in spring mode. The vivid pageantry they unfurled on 2007’s Parades continues unabated on their 4AD bow. A Glass-like piano figure begins the stately piece and coaxes out the rest of the melody like animals faltering out of their dens after a long freeze. Like many Efterklang tracks, it pays to observe the trees after reveling the forest. For example, the kick drum begins slightly countered to Casper Clausen’s vocals, before wonderfully synching with the last words of every verse. Later, violinists scrape their strings and tap on instrument bodies, and that piano line nimbly morphs into a bleepy electronic beat and back into its original form. Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Grizzly Bear, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) handles the mixing, foregrounding the electronic twinge that graces Efterklang’s orchestral pop. They might be a bit mannered in their approach here, but they’ve also evolved into a band that’s simultaneously adept at both pomp and repose.