Things We Have in Common, Efterklang's seventh album, refines the band's ongoing engagement with human connection. With it, the Danish trio of Casper Clausen, Mads Brauer, and Rasmus Stolberg prioritize clarity and atmosphere over intricate ornamentation. The album concludes a thematic trilogy that includes Altid Sammen (2019) and Windflowers (2021).
Things We Have in Common was produced by Efterklang alongside Francesco Donadello (Jóhann Jóhannsson, A Winged Victory for the Sullen). It is more austere than Altid Sammen and Windflowers, leaning towards a devotional atmosphere thanks to Donadello's expansive spatial mixing. Where Altid Sammen luxuriated in chamber pop and Windflowers explored a folk-tinged palette, Things We Have in Common reduces harmonic complexity, favoring open, spacious structures.
At the core of Things We Have in Common is the return of pianist and composer Rune Mølgaard, a founding member who left the band after 2007’s Parades. Having spent years in the Mormon Church before leaving in 2022, Mølgaard’s reckoning with faith and self-identity shapes much of the record’s thematic heft. This tension is evident from Balancing Stones, which opens the album in a hush of shimmering synths and Clausen’s searching vocals. "Go through the eyes of silence / I feel divided, on my own," he sings.
Plant, featuring Mabe Fratti’s cello, uses nature as a metaphor for personal growth; its subdued falsetto harmonies recall Sigur Rós's weightlessness. In contrast, Getting Reminders, featuring Beirut’s Zach Condon, injects brassy flourishes and folk-inflected warmth into one of the album’s most sweeping moments, reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens at his most anthemic.
While much of Things We Have in Common lingers in stillness, there are moments of tension and unease. Ambulance is Efterklang at their most experimental, building tension with hypnotic piano loops and elongated vocal refrains, the repetitive "don’t belong" reinforcing its anxious energy. The existential disquiet continues with Shelf Break, a direct reference to Mølgaard’s crisis of faith. "On a shelf” is a common phrase used in Mormon circles to describe setting aside unresolved questions about doctrine or church history rather than confronting them directly. The track's stark piano builds gradually, culminating in an emotional crescendo to "free yourself, let it go."
Choral elements and collaborative compositions feature heavily in Things We Have in Common. This communal importance is well documented in the recent documentary, Efterklang: The Makedonium Band, which followed the band as they assembled a group of local musicians to create a concert in a week. The album’s final stretch brings a shift towards this lightness. Animated Heart, featuring the South Denmark Girls' Choir, moves from solitude to connection through an almost sacred resonance. Sentiment follows with its assertion: "Everything revolves around love." Closing with the choral harmonies and weightless instrumentation of To A New Day, Efterklang leaves listeners with a sense of exhalation. "Like dreams in the night, it's now or forever," Clausen sings again in the harmony of the South Denmark Girls Choir.
With Things We Have in Common, Efterklang distils their long-running exploration of connection into their most spacious work. Allowing these compositions to breathe shifts the listener's focus from grand gestures to quiet revelations. The result is an open-ended meditation on unseen threads that bind us all.
On April 29, celebrate With Things We Have in Common with Efterklang as Control Club welcomes one of the most charming live bands on the planet to Bucharest.
