“A heavy-riff boom that sounds like Sigur Ros’ idea of Black Sabbath…the lyrics are in Danish, but this full-moon magic needs no translation.” – David Fricke, Rolling Stone
“Gorgeous and sweeping…well crafted, well balanced, and well worth zoning out to.” – SPIN
“Under Byen’s great with eerie beauty…chilling and catchy at once. 7.7/10” – Pitchfork
“The interplay, the spaces left out by one instrument, into which another player would insert a sound, seemed carefully arranged, and this sort of socket approach grabbed me instantly. The mood is one of beautiful desolation and melancholy.” – David Byrne
Denmark’s Under Byen (Danish for ‘under the city’) is set to release their fourth album Alt Er Tabt (All Is Lost) on April 6th 2010. The new album is the band’s first studio album since 2006’s Internationally-acclaimed Samme Stof Som Stof. Alt Er Tabt will be the band’s third release on Paper Bag Records.
Alt Er Tabt is Under Byen’s most direct album to date. It is structured around subtle, minimal and abstract sounds. The music and lyrics are always on the edge of exploding into a new meaning, new complexity and new shades of wealth. The instruments were recorded to preserve their pure unmediated materiality, where music is confused with sounds. A cello sounds like wood. A guitar sounds like steel. Alt Er Tabt is the group’s most lively and playful album to date – no matter how alarming the tone might sound.
“A lot has happened in the band since we released Samme Stof Som Stof four years ago,” says Nils Gröndahl. “Thorbjørn, who played the piano, has left the band, and being without him has in some way turned us into a new band. He wrote most of the music, but on Alt Er Tabt everyone in the band has contributed to the songwriting.”
Under Byen broke the music world open with 2006’s North American release of its album Samme Stof Som Stof. The album was performed in such unconventional locations as an 18th-century Belgian house, and a Swedish forest.
For more info, please visit:
http://www.underbyen.dk
http://www.myspace.com/underbyen
http://www.paperbagrecords.com
