“Step Aside,” by Efterklang and Tobias Hellkvist

I came upon the music of indie-pop band Efterklang, I dunno, maybe seven years ago.  The Danish ensemble had this lovely approach to pop music, adding ambient post-rock and orchestral theatrics with aplomb, and creating music that was mesmerizing, dramatic, and full of personality.  I began buying all their music up, and was never disappointed.

Composer Tobias Hellkvist sticks to the ambient side of things.  His music is peaceful, quite melodic even when unstructured, and often quite pretty.  It’s the kind of serene music that NPR will often use as interludes between shows or as background music for a voice-over.  It would not surprise me if, in fact, NPR has used Hellkvist’s music in this capacity.

Anyways, he did a cover of an Efterklang song that always stuck in my head.  I think I originally discovered it streaming on the Efterklang site or maybe I heard it on Hellkvist’s MySpace page, back in the day when I’d still go on MySpace, which I don’t do anymore because, y’know, it’s awful and can be virus-y.  The song Hellkvist covered is called “Step Aside,” which originally appeared on Efterklang’s 2004 release Tripper.  I hadn’t heard that song for years, and I don’t believe that it’s ever been available for sale.  However, I discovered a video stream of it on YouTube today, and so I decided to share it in today’s post, even though it’s really not relevant to my site’s raison d’etre of modern jazz.

Here’s the Tobias Hellkvist version…

And here’s the Efterklang original, which they are generously offering as a free download…

Hit the “Download” button to take them up on their offer.

Discover more of Tobias Hellkvist’s music on his Bandcamp page.  The album I seem to return to the most is Kaskelot, though I recall enjoying pretty much everything he’s put out.

Discover more of Efterklang’s music on their Bandcamp page.  The albums I most recommend of there’s are Parades and Performing Parades.  The latter is a live performance of the former, and it’s pretty spectacular.  A toss-up of which of those two to get.  I suggest both.

I link to both artist sites above back in the intro paragraphs.  Clicking on their name will take you to their respective sites.

Have a great Sunday!

Cheers.