For an admitted vidiot, I'm not exactly a huge romantic comedy or, certainly, a chick flick guy. I'm not sure if it's considered a chick flick or not, but I was really surprised how much I liked the Steve Carell movie Dan In Real Life. Well, I mean, it stars Carell, but it's a Peter Hedges movie; he directed, and there our so-called story on Sondre Lerche begins. Because Hedges' vision of how he wanted not only the music, not only the songs, but the songwriter to fit into the cast and creation of this movie is truly without precedent of which we are aware.
Because he does a lovely job, we'll leave the telling of the tale to this young and gifted Norwegian from the town of Bergen, who now resides in NYC with his actress wife. For the movie score, several previously written songs of Sondre's were used, and a handful more written for the film, as well as some closely related and interdependent cue music that's equally catchy and memorable.
I can't recall ever seeing a movie where the music actually served to make it an even better movie. And the credit goes first to Hedges, because the vision begins and erupts there. After going through scores of artists, Lerche's music was what stuck, and Sondre stepped up to the plate remarkably, indelibly.
Although we hope you're not only moved to get the soundtrack and the many CDs of Sondre Lerche, you must (if you haven't already) rent or buy the DVD of Dan In Real Life and watch the Special Features CD where Sondre Lerche and director Hedges go deeply into how the music was conceived and executed for the film, and the amazing interplay between the composer and the actors, as well as the director. It was very exciting, and very inspiring.
For such a young artist, Lerche has already recorded albums of alternative pop, jazz ballads, and pop of a quirkier, jazzy nature, which is what we like the best. But you can sample them all on iTunes, and get the turn of the diamond that suits your current palate best. Our Listen page will all be clips from the movie soundtrack. Some of the big surprises for us lately: the movie, the soundtrack, and the songwriter turned composer, Sondre Lerche. (And what a nice cat, check him out.)
