Sondre Lerche has always been a romantic. Whether it be the songs he wrote as a teen for his critically acclaimed 2001 debut, Faces Down, or starring as the love-lorn Christian in the Norwegian stage production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. In 2026, though, his love of, well, love is shot through with a kind of defiance. “There’s a dissonance between the increasingly dystopian world we live in and finding beauty and peace in your private life,” he says. “It feels almost like a paradox that I’m blessed to have landed in a life and a love that is very meaningful and true. And, at the same time, it feels impossible to write a love song without taking into account the terrible things that are happening in the world.” The result is Lerche’s 11th studio album, Acrobats, an eight-song suite that pingpongs between joy and introspection, loss and love. Recorded across nine studios with a gaggle of creatives, it’s a perhaps more sobering followup up 2022’s Avatars of Love — although no less brimming with passion. “If there’s one theme to this album, I suppose it is finding love in times of great unrest and hopelessness," Lerche says. And that’s precious.