Sea Of Sighs

«Sea Of Sighs» is a new EP of largely instrumental, ambient and orchestral collage music by Sondre Lerche. The project began its course while Lerche was on tour in Japan, with a few days off and alone in Tokyo, this past fall. It was finalized right before Christmas in Bergen, after a series of portable sessions in Oslo and Venice.

The creative connection to Japan is poignant seeing as Lerche has long drawn inspiration from Japanese musical explorers such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Hiroshi Yoshimura and Chihei Hatakeyama. Italy’s Gigi Masin, Spain’s Suso Saiz, Norway’s Biosphere, all veterans of European experimental music, are other influences, along with contemporary forces such as Kali Malone and Max Richter. Lerche’s affinity for abstract and experimental music was perhaps first explicitly detectable in his soundtrack to the 2014 Sundance hit «The Sleepwalker», and later that same year on Lerche’s own «Please» album.

An appreciation for the atmospheric and spacious has also added new sonic depths to Lerche’s more recent acclaimed albums «Patience» (2020) and «Avatars Of Love» (2022), as well as that album’s distant cousin, «Avatars Of The Night» (2023), which included collaborations with Roméo Poirier and William Basinski. With «Sea Of Sighs» Lerche embraces a form of majestic minimalism that blends pre-existing sampled elements with arrangements and sounds recorded and composed specifically for each piece.

Also included on the album is a new take on Lerche’s 2014 composition «Sentimentalist», rendered here as a slow-burning duet with Norwegian-Brazilian singer Gabriela Garrubo, recorded in collaboration with producer Vetle Junker (Hannah Storm, Metteson, Verdensrommet, AURORA). On «Sea Of Sighs» Lerche again works with longtime-collaborators Kato Ådland and Jørgen Træen (Susanne Sundfør, Moskus, Jaga Jazzist, ØKSE), as well as Alexander von Mehren who plays vibraphone on the title track, and piano on «Post-Modern Nature», together with Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Solveig Wang on clarinet. Totalling 35 minutes of musical gestures both romantic and dissonant, «Sea Of Sighs» is an unexpectedly soothing and chilling atmospheric journey.

"Monumental minimalisme"
Audun Vinger, Dagens Nœringsliv

"Man skal ikke undervurdere den folkekjære artistens kunstneriske allsidighet"
6/6, Nicolas Africanus Gjefle, Gaffa