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Sondre Lerche Review
By Giselle Señas
THE HARBINGER
His undeniable boyish charm
often times makes him impossible to
resist. Together with his innovative,
whimsical indie-pop infused with
animated guitar progressions and
his melodic voice, Sondre Lerche is
the perfect candidate for every teenage
dream.
Born and raised in Bergen,
Norway, Sondre Lerche (pronounced
SON-dreh LAIR-key), started playing
guitar at eight years old and singing
acoustic gigs at the local club where
his sister worked.
Lerche might most notably
be recognized for writing the score
for the movie Dan in Real Life, featuring
funnyman Steve Carrel, but
it’s only the cusp of what Lerche has
to offer. In 2001, he released his
debut album, Faces Down, which received
critical praise in Norway and
the United States.
He released his sophomore
album, Two Way Monologue, three
years later, showcasing a more diverse
sound varying from spunky
upbeat pop tracks to more sweet
steel-stringed guitar melodies. The
album also received rave reviews
from Rolling Stone.
Devoting tribute to his jazz
roots, Lerche released Duper Ses-
The Cove Review
By Iqra Ahmed
THE HARBINGER
One of the most haunting,
thought-provoking and enlightening
documentaries, The Cove is an
ocean conservationist produced
documentary about the annual dolphin
slaughter that occurs every
year in Taiji, Japan, from August to
March.
The film highlights how
over 2,000 dolphins and porpoises
are killed in Japan every year for the
country’s whaling industry. 23,000
dolphins have been slaughtered to
date.
Migrating dolphins are
herded into a hidden cove by methods
that play on their hypersensitive
hearing. Since dolphins are
extremely sensitive to sound, fishermen
herd them by sticking metal
poles into the water and create a
chaos of sound by hitting the poles
with hammers. As a result, the dolphins
become terrified and flee
wherever they can; in this case, the
dolphins head straight into a cove
and a giant net enclosing it prevents
them from escaping.
From there, some dolphins
are examined by representatives of
dolphinariums (such as Seaquariums)
who choose the ones they
want to take into captivity, where
they will be trained to perform
tricks in small tanks for cheering
audiences. The rest are killed, by
spears and knives driven through
them over the sides of small fishing
boats.
Ric O’Barry, a once renowned
dolphin trainer, helps lead
the mission to get word out about
this. O’Barry explains how he spent
ten years on the hit TV show Flipper,
working and training with dolphins.
One day, one of the dolphins
he trained with on set committed
suicide from unhappiness. He explains
that every breath a dolphin
takes is a conscious, voluntary effort.
This particular dolphin decided
to end her life by not taking the
next breath. Since then, Ric O’Barry
sions in 2006, a bona fide jazz album
featuring The Faces Down Quartet
and pianist Erik Halvorsen.
A year later, he took a turn
towards a more aggressive rock pop
sound in Phantom Punch. The album
most notably features effortlesssounding
chromatic progressions on
the guitar paired with energetic vocals.
His last album, Heartbeat
Radio, (released in 2009), is said to
be his greatest and boldest compilation
to date. Lerche really digs deep
into his foundation of vast musical
influences as he mixes acoustic guitar
with elements of orchestral pop
(most notably seen in the title track),
fifties jazz, sixties and seventies Brazilian
psych-folk, and eighties pop.
Perhaps one of Lerche’s
greatest attributes is his ability to
hold a show on his own—using only
a guitar. His complicated guitar progressions
and infectious witty lyrics
compliment his energetic stage presence
and they make for an enjoyable
performance. It’s hard not to listen
to his one man show.
For more info on Sondre Lerche’s
tour dates and the release of
his new album (due out later this
year) visit sondrelerche.com.
has dedicated his life to freeing captive
dolphins.
O’Barry initiated the docu-
Documentary poster for The Cove. Google Images.
March 2011/Volume 11/Issue 4
Sondre Lerche. Google Images.
mentary. He knew about the slaughter
that occurred in Taiji but could
not expose the world to it because
D13
photographing and videotaping are
not allowed by the government in
the area and voluntary fishermen
taunt and ward off anyone that
tries.
A team, composed of activists
and experts, went under the
cover of night to plant cameras and
microphones disguised as rocks and
underwater cameras in the area.
The team describes feeling helpless
because they could hear the
despairing noise from the splashing
dolphins that would be dead by
morning.
Further research was conducted
as to where slaughtered
dolphin meat ends up. The team
sampled fish meat sold in Japanese
markets labeled as whale meat or
other types of fish meat, and found
that some of it was dolphin meat.
Not only is this false advertisement
but dolphin meat contains high levels
of mercury; high levels of this
element in our systems causes conditions
such as cerebral palsy and
mental retardation.
Since dolphins are on the
smaller scale of the cetacean group,
the International Whaling Committee
does not have certain laws
against dolphin hunting. Furthermore,
Japan pays countries to side
with them to keep it that way. The
end of this documentary shows Ric
O’Barry with footage from the hidden
rocks walk into an IWC meeting
with a large screen revealing the
horrors that take place in the cove.
The documentary itself
is “an act of heroism,” says one of
the reviews and it is true. Very few
people were aware of this annual
slaughter, and this documentary
sheds a light that infuriates, enrages,
disappoints and enlightens you.
The Cove won the U.S. Audience
Award at the 25th Annual Sundance
Festival, out of 879 submissions and
won the Academy Awards for Best
Documentary Feature at the 82nd
Academy Awards (March 2010).