Sondre Lerche - The “new Bacharach” from the fjords

It's remarkable how the cold, muffled lands of Northern Europe, the more frozen and lifeless they seem, the more they manage to produce music of the very highest calibre. Norway, compared to the arguably more celebrated Swedish and Icelandic scenes, has perhaps stayed more in the background, even though it has given us names of the stature of Royksopp and Kings Of Convenience. And it's from Bergen, Norway's second city after Oslo and home to the duo who have risen to the top of the global indie-pop scene over the past few years, that another artist comes: now based in the US, he's been dubbed (with perhaps a touch too much enthusiasm) the "new Burt Bacharach": Sondre Lerche.

Lerche was born on 5 September 1982 in one of the thousands of colourful little houses that define the hometown of the great composer Edvard Grieg. And the label "child prodigy" isn't exactly out of place when it comes to Sondre. At eight he started taking guitar lessons, captivated by the songwriting of Beatles, Beach Boys and a-ha; but before long that "classic" dimension stopped being enough for him. So his music teacher introduced him to Brazilian music and bossa nova, elements that often seep through his compositions. By the age of fourteen he had already written his first song, "Locust Girl", and he picked up his acoustic guitar to play the clubs of his hometown, quickly building up a certain reputation.

Three years go by, and in 1999, one evening in a venue where Sondre's sister worked as a bartender, Hans-Petter Gundersen walks in. HP, as he's better known in those parts, had had some minor musical experience back in the late Eighties before becoming a trusted figure for the Norwegian branches of Warner, EMI, Sony Music and Virgin. He's instantly struck by Sondre's talent and takes him under his wing on the journey that will lead, two years later, to the release of his debut album, Faces Down.

Faces Down came out in Norway in September 2001 on Virgin Norway, offering a ray of light in the dark days following the attack on the Twin Towers. The songs, graceful and strongly melodic, absorb all the young Lerche's influences: from psychedelia to Californian pop, from a jazzy touch to the lo-fi pop of Pavement and Belle And Sebastian, everything goes into the melting pot of the barely nineteen-year-old singer-songwriter from Bergen. And success comes immediately. In Norway, "Sleep On Needles" and "Modern Nature" (which in 2007 would also end up on the soundtrack of the film "Dan in Real Life", curated by Lerche himself) soon turn into chart hits, earning him the Best New Act award at the Norwegian Grammys and a place on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2002.

Over the course of 2002 the album starts making its way across the rest of Europe and America, leading Sondre to share a stage with his childhood idols a-ha and to embark on a tour lasting almost two years alongside another of his icons, Elvis Costello.

Having spent 2003 sharing stages around the world with the British musician, one of the clearest influences on his music, Sondre starts putting together his first ideas for the follow-up to the resounding success of Faces Down.

So, in 2004 along comes Two Way Monologue, the eagerly awaited second chapter in the Norwegian singer-songwriter's career, released on the American label Astralwerks, owned by Virgin. It's an extremely tight record, held up by light orchestrations drunk on cosmic harmonies (smudged here and there by barely hinted-at psychedelic detours) and scratched by an acoustic guitar that, far from taking over, sits on equal footing with the other elements in his delicate musical inlays, true textbooks of pop architecture.

The album's three quarters of an hour fly by light and fast; too light, perhaps, and that's the problem. The feeling, at least for this writer, is that the songs' formal flawlessness conceals a certain coldness of substance, rarely managing to truly stir the listener's soul, an element that, as we know, is essential to any pop song's success; the same can't be said of the lyrics, though, which reveal real expressive flair (quirky, and all the more clever for it) and a subtle undercurrent of melancholy running through the whole record.

The most successful tracks end up being the title track, with its driving rhythm cut through by an incisive acoustic guitar and graceful lyrics (⟦Q1⟧), the sweet, slightly country-tinged "Stupid Memory", which wraps itself in the dreamy coils of a soft, light dance, and the melancholy arpeggio (placed at both the opening and close of the track) of "Days That Are Over". For the rest, a sense of predictability hangs over things (crafted with skill, nonetheless), running through the languid "Track You Down", the psychedelic tedium of "Wet Ground" and the irritating, timeless suspension of the closing "Maybe You're Gone".

The album, even though it only partially confirms the promise of the lovely debut, receives good reviews internationally, but struggles to make Lerche's name known to a wider audience. He nonetheless carries on with his pop craftsmanship, and in the meantime finds happiness in love, marrying Norwegian model Mona Fastvold in July 2005, whom he met on the set of the "Days That Are Over" video.

Anticipation for the third record runs high, all the more so since a misstep could send the big guy from Bergen back into obscurity — and in the meantime he feels the need to explore the jazz side of his music. And so, in February 2006, Duper Sessions is released, a collection of fourteen tracks split between originals and covers of songs by jazz greats and others (Cole Porter, Paddy McAloon, Elvis Costello), on which Sondre surrounds himself with strings, choirs and percussion to give his sweet pop universe a different spin. The task is carried off brilliantly, flawless in terms of both technique and creativity, but once again something seems to be missing. The very thing that separates an exercise in (however refined) style from the natural unfolding of genuine inspiration.

Even so, the album reaches number five on the Billboard Official Top Contemporary Jazz Albums Chart, but once again fails to break through.

And after jazz, it's rock's turn. A year after Duper Sessions, Sondre makes himself heard again, in February 2007, with his most rock-leaning album yet: Phantom Punch. The record comes across as much more aggressive, blending the Sixties pop that was the musician's first love with a new indie-rock outfit, in which Lerche's dreamy voice evokes landscapes typical of the Nineties. The influence of the great masters of the previous decade is evident throughout the record, ranging from tracks where you can practically hear Beck (maybe the blond hair affects the vocal cords too?) and Pavement, to more pop-leaning deities like Belle And Sebastian and early Radiohead.

In short, all influences that retain a strong melodic streak, which is indeed the young Lerche's trademark, aided here by the production of Tony Hoffer (who, needless to say, has worked with Beck, Air, Belle And Sebastian and Phoenix).

The title track, which had already previewed the album's release back in the summer of 2006, becomes a huge hit on Norwegian radio, followed by "Say It All". The two tracks launch the record, giving a bit of a lift to Lerche's somewhat flagging fortunes, though he still doesn't seem to have found his definitive landing point, after having explored pop, jazz and rock.

No sooner had we caught our breath after Phantom Punch than, by the end of 2007, the young Scandinavian was back at work, this time on the soundtrack for Peter Hedges' comedy "Dan in Real Life", starring Steve Carell (already the lead in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"). Lerche also appears in one of the film's closing scenes with his band, Faces Down, having handled the entire musical side of the movie as composer of thirteen of the seventeen tracks featured in it, including the pleasant and refined duet with Regina Spektor, "Hell No".

2008 is a quiet year in the life of the Bergen-born prodigy, who devotes himself to writing new tracks for what could become his definitive album.

And so, in 2009, along comes Heartbeat Radio, his sixth full-length effort in less than ten years of career, at the age of just 27. But once again, it's a missed opportunity. Despite having repeatedly proven his worth as a pop songwriter poised to become the heir to Belle And Sebastian in the imagination of the average indie rocker, the Norwegian singer-songwriter, now signed to Rounder Records, turns out yet another good record, full of catchy, seductive little songs, but once again fails to break through.

Two years pass, and Sondre once again attempts to reach the definitive pop album with Sondre Lerche, his self-titled 2011 record. It's not a bad album. Especially in its middle section there are some solid little songs, starting with the driving "Go Ahead Now", moving through the orchestral, cinematic airiness of "Coliseum Town" and the poignant "Domino", with its angry distortions in the finale. Even the tracks most closely tied to his recent past, like the refined gentleness of "Ricochet" or the sinuous "Living Dangerously", wash over you without putting up any resistance, but there remains an underlying problem with Sondre's music: it leaves no trace of itself. In its perfection, in its harmonic construction, it slips away like a silk handkerchief brushing against our eardrums. The Beatles-esque sprint just before the end ("Tied Up To The Tide") and the closing "When The River", between choral openings and an almost dance-like beat, offer interesting hints toward a future different from everything heard up to track eight of this self-titled effort.

Once again, though, the numbers just don't add up. Is it worth remaining in eternal anticipation of this big blue-eyed guy from the far North finally delivering the record capable of giving meaning to an entire career? The impression, on the threshold of his tenth year in the business, is that Lerche's fate is to remain forever unfinished.

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