Choir of Young Believers – Mercury Lounge (New York, NY) – Monday, March 19, 2012

After playing a couple of shows in California, and a few more in Austin, TX for SXSW, this Denmark orchestral pop ensemble made this brief New York stopover, before heading back to their home continent. It was a special occasion for the gig, coming by chance on the eve of the release of their second album, Rhine Gold. But there was another, even better reason not to miss this show: While half-Greek, half-Danish singer/guitarist Jannis Noya Makrigiannis originally formed COYB as a solo project in 2006, playing and recording with a rotating cast of musicians, the band eventually morphed into a stable, seven-member unit – and this tour marked the first time all seven have played together in the U.S. Thus, this was an ideal opportunity to witness their luxurious music performed with all the bells and whistles, and it proved to be an aural treat.

Backing up Makrigiannis’s dark, cinematic croon, the band consisted of distinctive cellist and backing vocalist Cæcilie Trier, bassist Jakob Millung, drummer Casper Henning Hansen, percussionist Lasse Herbst, and keyboardists Bo Rande and Sonja Labianca (the latter two also contributed horn and saxophone, respectively, to a few numbers). Fitting tightly on the small Mercury Lounge stage, they not surprisingly focused on new LP material – only two songs (of eight) from the main set were from their 2008 debut, This is For the White in Your Eyes: “Claustrophobia” and “These Rituals of Mine”. But that mattered not a whit, as Rhine Gold compositions like “Sedated”, “Paint New Horrors”, and especially “Nye Nummer Et” (Danish for “New Number One” – it sounds like it could be!) were every bit as grand, sweeping, and lush. The group closed with their fastest, hardest tune: the motorik-like, ten-minute epic “Paralyse”. It featured the whole band bashing away on their instruments in unison, before slowing it down considerably for the song’s sighing, Beatles-esque finale.

For the encore, Makrigiannis and Trier returned without the band and played a spare, chamber-quiet cover of a song called “Fail Forever”, by Copenhagen electronic outfit When Saints Go Machine. It was a superb ending to this warm March evening, and made me eager to dip further into the new album’s sonic delights.