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.

Blending the darkness and melancholy of 1950s balladry with intimate woodwind, synth, and percussion arrangements, The Saxophones—led by Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdice— forge a uniquely hypnotic and personal sound. Formed in the California Bay Area in 2017, the husband-and-wife duo’s minimalist after-hours tones will prop you up in the darkest corner of a smoky lounge bar. Their retro-tinged chamber pop combines elements of mid-century exotica, art-noir, folk, and West Coast jazz, creating music that is both hauntingly nostalgic and unmistakably their own.