The release of a live album from one's favourite artist can often provoke mixed reactions. For the obsessive: Joy! Another release to make that previously complete collection somehow more complete! For the cynic however, snobbishness reigns: tacky packaging. Bonus DVD. Self-indulgent extended instrumental solos. Sell outs.

With this in mind, Efterklang's release of Performing Parades, a live, track-order recording of their critically acclaimed 2007 album Parades, might seem a slightly strange move for the Danish collective to take. Quite simply, the majesty and sheer beauty of the original record made it outstanding in its own right - why risk spoiling this? 

To those who have witnessed Efterklang live, the answer is rooted in the fact that it is in the live arena where Efterklang's otherworldly chamber folk is at its most affecting - Parades, after all, is essentially a record that demands to be imagined in a concert setting, as horns blare, strings quiver and harmonies engulf from all sides, creating a cacophony of sound indigenous to an orchestra.

Aptly enough, Performing Parades sees Efterklang joined by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra in their entirety, with composer Karsten Fundal having prepared vast orchestral arrangements for ten months before the concert recording in Copenhagen. Such grandiosity works perfectly, adding new layers to 'Mirador', while 'Frida Found A Friend' builds with a slow, menacing groove and intensity that can only come from fifty-odd musicians sharing the same mental and physical space. The album climax, 'Cutting Ice To Snow', is quite incredible; effectively a child's nursery melody stretched out and turned into a sound so gigantic, so ecstatic, that the effect is emotionally taxing.

Indeed, such is the sonic majesty of Performing Parades that the accompanying video footage of the original performance actually adds relatively little to the whole package, although a behind-the-scenes documentary on the concert preparations will please classical music geeks no end, with some of the orchestra members adding a more austere atmosphere. This is a reminder that Efterklang are making Serious Music. Serious perhaps, but Performing Parades' real triumph is its inherent sense of joy.

Tim Wong