#duper sessions

[tornbluefoamcouch]

Artista: Sondre Lerche And The Faces Down Quartet Álbum: Duper Sessions Ano: 2006 Faixas/Tempo: 15/44min Estilo: Jazz Pop/Standarts Data de Execução: 10/09/2024 Nota: 6,0 Melhor Música: Everyone's Rooting For you

[amandawritesback]

The ease at which I'm punching out articles these days is a little scary. Glad I got some Sondre Lerche love in before the magic wears off. 

[amandawritesback]

So at some point between his two albums "Two Way Monologue" and "Phantom Punch", Sondre said, as only he could in his adorable little Norwegian way, "I should make a record with the energy of a live show--with everyone playing their parts live at the same time." And that's kinda, sorta how "Duper Sessions" happened. There's more to it than that. A lot more, actually. You can hear him tell the story here, but the fact that this record happened is kinda amazing. It shows the incredible results of letting projects develop and happen organically when they are planted with an adventurous spirit, and nurtured with spontaneity. Love this kid's ambition, talent, and versatility. 

Oh yeah, and the album is bloody delicious. So good. The best accidental record ever.

[amandawritesback]

I get misty eyed every time I hear this song. Just imagine being the person who inspired someone to sit down and write this. So beautiful. And Sondre's voice. Dear God. I Tweeted at him one time and told him he could release an album singing the terms and conditions of a cell phone contract, and I'd buy 10 copies of it. He tweeted back, thought it was funny and nice of me to say. Hope he knows that it was TRUE.

Sondre Lerche - The Small Print. Summer 2014

Let that shit pop up on his Twitter as an album to pre-order. JUST. YOU. LET. IT.

[mackerelthecat]

Good Music

A Sondre Lerche morning.

[oneweekoneband]

(I Wanna) Call It Love

To finish out our "Sondre Lerche is amazing live" series, here's SL and band at the Bowery Ballroom on his 30th birthday last year play one of my all time favorite songs. I'm standing in the front row for this and it was amazing.

[oneweekoneband]

The Duper Sessions and Phantom Punch: Substance Over Style Through Style Magnification

On his first two albums, Sondre Lerche blended his love for overreaching 80s new wave and synth pop with his love for the more ornate and song-focused music of the American Songbook, 60s chamber pop and Brazilian pop. In various ways, Faces Down and Two Way Monologue see SL bring out aspects of these influences in an eclectic and hybridized fashion. For his next two albums, which can be seen as sibling releases, Lerche polarizes and magnifies these sounds.

Duper Sessions is ostensibly a jazz album. Sondre Lerche is backed by the “Faces Down Quartet,” a typical jazz combo of piano, guitar, upright bass, and drums. The album also pulls from the jazz tradition of reimagining pop songs in jazz idioms, and includes a jazz standard, Cole Porter’s "Night And Day". In addition to the more traditional jazz flavor the songs are given, SL incorporates his chamber pop influence with the addition of intricate string parts (arranged by Jesper Riis) on many of the songs. Like his previous albums, Lerche’s voice on Duper Sessions is smooth, sweet, and charming but he makes sure that the edges are even smoother on these recording to fit the jazzier style.

Phantom Punch, on the other hand, is easily SL’s most aggressive effort, becoming the other side of the coin to Duper Sessions. Here, SL emphasizes the influence from 80s new-wave and punk bands like XTC, early Prefab Sprout, and Elvis Costello and the Attractions. In an email to a producer before the sessions for the album, Lerche wrote, “I want to scream and I will!” and the music is fast and loud to match. (It is interesting, of course, that Lerche covers both Prefab Sprout and Elvis Costello on Duper Sessions instead of on Phantom Punch where they would need less stylistic overhaul to fit in)

What is great about both of these albums, though, is not their style. The fact that Duper Sessions is a jazz album and Phantom Punch is an aggressive, new wave inspired rock album is interesting only at first. What makes these records stand out to me, as two of my all-time favorite albums, is that the songs are great. Lerche’s preoccupation with style on these albums actually seems emphasize his substance-over-style skill. By separating and magnifying his two disparate sound worlds, we are shown the similarities in song writing more than differences in presentation. His complex use of shifting harmonic focus, his elegant melodies, and his emotional but abstract lyrics are present on both records. Lerche has stated in interviews that he feels strongly that many of the songs on Duper Sessions (and by extension, Phantom Punch as well) could have fit on any of his albums given just a slightly different arrangement. And he plays many of these songs live still, right along side songs from his more straightforward albums.

That Sondre Lerche emphasizes style through signifiers, allusions, and tributes, as I’ve been (and will continue) discussing this week, should not be taken as a sign that style is his main emphasis. In fact, I think, that his use of style serves to emphasize his unique songwriting voice, and Duper Sessions and Phantom Punch, as the most extreme examples of style immersion, show this most effectively.

[a-slice-of-ear-pie]

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‘(I Wanna) Call It Love’ by Sondre Lerche & the Faces Down Quartet, from ‘Duper Sessions’

Released 2006

Sondre Lerche, a Norwegian singer-songwriter is known as a chameleon in the music industry because of his wide variety of songs. I see this song as theatrical and musical. The violin complements the voice perfectly, I think. It’s from a really jazzy album, though. That’s one of the things I love about Sondre Lerche, and that’s the fact that he can do just about any genre, master it, and put his own spin on it. I recommend taking a listen of ‘Duper Sessions’, especially the songs ‘Major Minor Detail’ and ‘Everyone’s Rooting for You’.