Avatars Of The Night is a 20-track album of remixes, reworks, new versions, solo demos, and live recordings of all the songs from the original album Avatars Of Love. The album was released on the 31st of March, a year after the original album, and features contributions from various contemporary artists such as Norwegian pianist Maria Kannegaard, Belgian ambient artist Roméo Poirier, and the American legend of experimental music, William Basinski. Some of the versions of the songs on the album are unrecognizable, while others zoom in on the songwriting and its moment of creation. The album includes two original songs that could not fit on the original LP, and two live recordings from a special three-story, four-hour-long concert in Bergen. The artwork for the album is a dark, inverse version of the original cover image, created by visual artist Nikolai Torgersen.
Avatars of the Night was initially meant to be an EP of remixes, but as the Sondre Lerche reached out to more people, the project expanded. The album takes the listener to all new rooms and moods, inviting them to leave behind what they know. The album is a culmination of Lerche’s work writing and recording, and he has said that it was the most exciting and all-encompassing challenge in their career so far. The album showcases his ability to collaborate with other artists that they admire and create something new out of his songs whilst experimenting with different sounds and moods.
“I wrote the song “My Love Still Waits” in the midst of the most intense period of writing Avatars Of Love, in the dark of January 2021. Norway was in various degrees of lockdown, and I mostly stayed inside, in my tiny studio apartment in Bergen. There was little of interest out there in the cold — the action was happening inside, within each new song I wrote. I had wanted to write a three-verse song, each verse representing a different encounter happening within the same state of mind. When are we ready to move on and meet the world anew? I meditated around this very pure bossanova chord sequence and a melody quickly materialized, along with ever-changing words. Songs, like life itself, are in a constant state of rewriting.
On the recording of “My Love Still Wait”s on the Avatars album, I wanted to combine two of my favourite musical palettes: a bossanova song, recorded with inspiration from Japanese ambient and electronic pioneers of the 80s and 90s. It took time to finesse. As I was curating the Avatars Of The Night album, I had the idea to do a Portuguese language version of the song. It seemed only natural. I asked one of my favourite contemporary singers, who just happens to be half Norwegian/half Brazilian - Gabriela Garrubo - who translated my lyrics, and we recorded the song together. She even convinced me to sing along with her, for some of the verses, patiently instructing and teaching me the correct pronunciation. The result is “O Amor Ainda Espera”, and it’s a proud moment for me. A stripped-down version of the song in what feels to be its native language.”