Norway native Sondre Lerche set for new album in June

Los Angeles-based, Norwegian-born singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche has announced his ninth studio album Patience will release on June 5.

After living in New York City for over a decade, the album is his first since relocating to the west coast. Recorded mostly in Norway, the inspiration for this record, as Lerche tells it, comes from a recently discovered love of ambient music, running marathons, and a quest for serenity.

Watch the video (directed by Jon Danovic) for the album’s lead single "You Are Not Who I Thought I Was." The album is now available for pre-order.

"I had this idea that a good place to start would be to go into the woods with a shovel and shoot some stuff wearing that red coat," Lerche explains. "I kept thinking of the Tom Waits song that goes: 'what's he building in there?' Like, what's he digging for up there? Ideas ballooned: what if there were more versions up there, spying on a perceived authentic self? What if they always find him, no matter where he goes? Basically an existential version of the 'Two Way Monologue' video, I realize now in retrospect."

Patience is the follow-up to 2017’s Pleasure. Like his previous albums, Lerche continues to work with core collaborators including percussionist Dave Heilman, bassist Chris Holm, keyboardist Alexander von Mehren, and producers Kato Ådland and Matias Tellez. The album also reunites Lerche with mixing engineer Jørgen Træen and world-renowned classical violinist/composer/arranger Tim Fain, as well as introducing an unexpected but winning team-up with Van Dyke Parks on "Put The Camera Down."

"The inspiration behind the theme and feeling of the album comes from the sense of space and time I associate with ambient music and minimalism. Ever since Pleasure came out in 2017, I’ve been running a lot, and I listen to mainly abstract music that helps me lose sense of time and structure when I run, what I refer to as 'patient music,'" Lerche explains. "Performing the flamboyant and intense Pleasure show 140 times in one year got me into athleticism, and made me passionate about running. Before this, I never did anything remotely athletic in my life. After Pleasure I felt like slowing down everything in my life. I stopped touring for the first time since I was 18. I moved to LA, and I just focused on writing. I needed to make soothing music."

Recently, Lerche's NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert that was filmed in 2009 was published to YouTube for the first time. In the coming weeks, Lerche will perform regularly via Instagram Live.

Track list:

1) Patience

2) I Love You Because It’s True
3) You Are Not Who I Thought I Was
4) There Is No Certain Thing
5) Are We Alone Now
6) That’s All There Is
7) Put The Camera Down
8) Why Would I Let You Go
9) I Can’t See Myself Without You
10) Don’t Waste Your Time
11) Why Did I Write The Book of Love
12) My Love Is Hard To Explain