Music Preview: Efterklang + Bowerbirds At Mohawk Tonight

Earlier this year, Efterklang released their lovely album Magic Chairs. The Copenhagen band have been performing together for over nine years. During that span, they've developed a sterling reputation for meshing beautiful melodies with strings, electronics, and vocals into a cinematic and cohesive whole.

As if the beauty of Efterklang weren't enough, tonight's bill also features Bowerbirds, the North Carolina folk act that has become a Mohawk favorite. Here's what we said about Bowerbirds during their late 2009 appearance: "North Carolina's Bowerbirds couldn't be more understated in their approach. When we last saw them at South By Southwest, they hardly looked big enough to be a band, and they didn't have much equipment. Yet when they started playing, the crowd fell silent, and some beautiful and unexpectedly huge sounds emerged. The combination of he/she vocal harmonies, basic acoustic guitar, and simple percussion somehow emerges as something greater than the individual parts. Given our experience with their live shows, we can't recommend this enough. The band arrive at The Mohawk tonight in support of their disc Upper Air, which Pitchfork described as an "immersive listening experience that can yield beauty and magic" and AllMusic called both "quietly fiery" and "the kind of thing that brings to mind Arcade Fire's best moments." No small amount of praise there, eh?"

Both of these bands are favorites of the Austinist music staff, and at $10, this show is a steal. We talked with Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg from Efterklang about the record (and The Mohawk) earlier this year prior to SXSW - here are some excerpts from the chat.

Magic Chairs seems to be the most straightforward rock/pop album the band have ever done. Was this a natural evolution, or did you want to change to something a bit different sonically?

To us this was more like an experiment, just like every album is. We wanted to make a simpler album, focusing on fewer elements and most of all being capable of playing the songs together as a band before entering the studio. This was something we'd tried to avoid for a long time, and therefore it was a fun challenge.

The usage of strings in indie rock has been popular lately, but with Efterklang, doing so seems like it has always been at the core of what you write and play. What do you see as the purpose of strings in your compositions?

We for sure like working with strings. You can use them in many ways, and they have a huge range of techniques. Generally speaking, we like the ambiance that strings can create. They also fit the rest of the sounds that we're using quite nicely. Also, they're quite good at combining the acoustic and electronic elements that we like to use.

Finally, thanks for coming to visit us in Texas - anything you're excited to do or see while in town?

We are excited about margaritas...basically we just hope to be able to play...for good people. We like Austin - we played at The Mohawk outdoors in May 2008 on our first American tour, and it was just magical despite an incredible stink from some fish restaurant garbage.