THE BEAUTY OF EFTERKLANG'S 'POLYPHONIES

 This beautiful song by Efterklang starts out with a soft melody that I think is played by an electric piano. I know this band does a lot of stuff with their music electronically. So it sounds like the melody being played by the piano is just fed back into a loop that just dances all around. It gives the melody this syncopated disjunction feel because of how the glitch-tech of the loop works. Then after awhile comes in this even more beautiful counter-melody. Gradually, more and more instruments add to the melody, developing a crescendo into the first verse. The first verse is sung polyphonically by Casper and Linda and accompanied by a choir on the second half of the verse. Also the feel of the song changes here with the drums finally coming in as soon as the verse starts. It is in common time but the drums do something here that I absolutely love when it is done right. The drummer is playing a simple 4/4 beat but makes it sound more complexed by playing the cymbal hits on 2 and 4. It’s simple but just that little touch to the song, makes it so much better. After the verse ends, melody and harmony ensue with an orchestra and then more choir sung melodies creating this very big sound. It stops to have what sounds like to me a duet with a cello and violin. playing what seems a mixture of a melody and harmony. That would be some heterophony. As they are holding their last note, it starts to sound dissonant for a moment and then the same. Kinda of going back and fourth to dissonant and consonant sounding, and then the song ends with a crescendo of stringed instruments and fades out. This has always been one of my favourite songs by this band.