News / Under Byen Return With “Raw and Primal” Fourth Album

Denmark’s Under Byen are set to release their new, “cut to the bone”, 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 Toronto’s 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 (Danish for ‘under the city’) 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.

Under Byen is:
Henriette Sennenvaldt – vocal
Nils Gröndahl – violin/saw
Sara Saxild – bass
Stine Sørensen – drums, vocals
Morten Larsen – drums
Morten Svenstrup – cello
Anders Stochholm – this and that