I stumbled upon the Norwegian balladeer's music in the early aughties on an Astralwerks sampler. Part of me is a big sucker for well-crafted pop songs, and another, smaller part is a sucker of schmaltzy, well-crafted pop songs. Sondre's music usually falls right in between.
You could write the guy off as a novelty; I mean, what else comes from Norway except big sweaters and lots of fish? But Lerche has a nice combination of talent and humility that keeps him searching for interesting things to do.
Anyways. I saw him a few years ago, actually right when I moved to Austin, and it was a solo show. I wasn't really into it. But when I saw he was playing an inside venue on a very unseasonably cold SXSW Saturday, I thought I'd check him out again.
It was great. It was like watching Sondre busking for euros at some subway station. The crowd was unsure of itself in the beginning, but completely attentive and silent by the end of his first number. Here's a song - I think it was the first one he played - from that show. It's called "Airport, Taxi, Reception". (The person who uploaded it wasn't sure).
