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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Sondre Lerche news on Sundance Film Festival

Scandinavian alt-pop musician Sondre Lerche is part of the new film The Sleepwalker, which has been accepted into this year's Sundance Film Festival competition.

The film is one of the top 16 films out of the 5,000 submitted to compete for Grand Jury and audience prizes.

Its soundtrack, out Jan. 14 on Mona Records, is an original collection written and performed by Sondre and Kato Ã…dland (Sondre's longtime music partner.)


Stereogum is now streaming new song "Palindromes."

Listen here:

Mostly instrumental, The Sleepwalker Original Soundtrack, allowed Sondre to explore ideas, structures and textures that he's developed an affinity for but hasn't been able to find room for on his song based albums.

"The Sleepwalker demanded an entirely different approach and tone," says Sondre. "I saw this as a very welcome opportunity to finally explore more atonal and ambient tendencies that I'd been drawn towards."
                                       
While scoring, Sondre and Kato were gravitating towards sound artists, composers and films such as Tim Hecker, Steve Reich, The Caretaker, John Cage, Jerry Goldsmith, the sound/music in Bergman's Persona, Bernard Herrmann, Tzenka Dianova and Kreng.

"The biggest most freeing difference was composing music that wasn't for me to perform as an artist, or god forbid, singer/songwriter, if you will. This was also the first time I composed music with someone else. We wrote most of it together in the studio, improvising and manipulating sounds and ideas to raw footage and dailies sent to us as they were shooting the film."

Directed by Mona Fastvold and staring Christopher Abbott and Gitte Witt, the film centers on a young couple renovating a secluded family estate, whose lives are violently interrupted when unexpected guests arrive.

Sondre and Kato worked hard to incorporate their interpretations of the sounds and textures of the incredibly intimidating house where most of the film takes place.

"The biggest revelation for me was working with dissonance and ambience. Some of the pieces we made for The Sleepwalker make as much, if not more, sense to me as some of the more compact pop songs I've written. It's just a different beast."

The Sleepwalker Original Soundtrack - now available for pre-order on Sondre's official website - features five tracks with vocals from Sondre, Sylvie Lewis, Nathalie Nordnes and Marit Larsen.

"Not bringing what I've learned through this process into my future songwriting and albums, would be impossible. It's been so fucking liberating, I can't turn around now."

Sondre will perform at this year's Sundance Film Festival. 

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