Norwegian musician, Jarle Bernhoft, just announced The Morning Comes – EP on January 20th, 2017. His latest EP offers a soul-rich base, with jazzy feel-good vibes that you can’t help but start moving to. As you listen for the very first time, there’s no denying that Bernhoft is a hybrid musician that you begin to question, how have I never heard this before?. Born into music, Bernhoft joins together a lifelong capacity of influence and heart into each one of his tracks.
Read more below on Bernhoft, and make sure to listen to our featured track Visceral from his EP – The Morning Comes at the top of this feature, and tell us what you think on our Instagram and Twitter.
Bernhoft is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and composer Jarle Bernhoft. He has become known for his intricate and complex live performances. In 2014, Bernhoft was nominated to Grammy for “Best R&B album” for his latest album “Islander”. Since the definitive breakthrough with “Solidarity Breaks” in 2011, Bernhoft has performed at many TV shows around the world including the Nobel concert and Ellen DeGeneres Show. He has done several sold-out tours and received rave concert reviews in Norway and else where. Bernhoft´s successful autumn 2016 tour is just finished, with more than 30 live dates in Norway, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.
..Bernhoft started his career as an angst-ridden rock frontman before switching to a unique, one-man band style of retro-soul that he alternated with a full backing band. Born in Nittedal in 1976 to an opera singer and a music teacher, Bernhoft enjoyed formal music study in his formative years and became involved in the local music scene while in secondary school. After graduating, he had minor success in the funk-rock quartet Explicit Lyrics in the ’90s, but achieved his commercial breakthrough after teaming up with bandmate Fridtjof Nilsen to co-found Span. With bassist Kim Nordbæk and drummer Fredrik Wallumrød, they released 2004’s Gil Norton-produced Mass Distraction and 2005’s Top Ten follow-up, Vs. Time, before disbanding. After reinventing himself as a classic soul man with his 2008 solo debut Ceramik City Chronicles, which hit number one in Norway, he issued the 2010 live album 1: Man 2: Band, crediting himself as simply Bernhoft. Building band arrangements on the fly with the aid of looping pedals, the performer found worldwide fame in 2011 when he appeared solo on The Ellen Degeneres Show to perform a track from his second LP, Solidarity Breaks. It spent seven weeks at the top of the Norwegian album chart. He relocated to Brooklyn, New York for the release of his next full-length, 2014’s Islander, which featured a duet with neo-soul icon Jill Scott. The album returned Bernhoft to the top of the charts in Norway and also earned a Grammy nomination in the U.S. for Best R&B Album. Amid tours with and without his handpicked Norwegian backing band the Fashion Bruises or American equivalent the Shudderbugs, he released the EP Stop/Shutup/Shout It Out in the spring of 2016. Another EP celebrating funk and soul, The Morning Comes, followed in January 2017. ~ Jon O’Brien & Marcy Donelson
