I do not wish to come off as the pretentious bastard who only listens to foreign European artists that no one else could possibly know as I reveal the second subject of the ‘Pole Parvenu, but it looks as if Jarle Bernhoft will make me come off as just that. Jarle is a Norwegian pop and soul/R&B singer that ditched his band to become “Bernhoft” the one man show, who I embarrassingly first heard when he was featured on Ellen. Strictly listening to his music you can imagine a young, black man belting his heart out, but when you actually look at Jarle, you find yourself watching a lanky, white, mohawked kid swapping between a harmonica and guitar.
Bernhoft has two very distinct sounds that do not quite match each other, but they add some intriguing combinations on his albums. His first album, City Ceramic Chronicles featured him and his band behind him playing constantly soulful tunes. The album’s number one song, Streetlights features a pre-mohawked Bernhoft smoothly singing into the microphone with a foot tap to go along with the drums. As well, So Many Faces has listeners (maybe only myself) looking over their shoulders to make sure no one witnesses their subtle swaying. The album consists of Jarle Bernhoft’s strict soul background in music, before he ventures off into the one man band that focuses more on the pop genre.
As Bernhoft has become a solo artist, he has released one album, Solidarity Breaks fortunately has some of his soul genius scattered in it, but the highlights of this album are his live performances of his poppy songs. In both C’mon Talk and Choices he uses foot pedals to record verses, different guitar pieces, sounds, and beats and then plays them over each other. C’mon Talk is the better of the two with Bernhoft first recording two lines along with snapping, then playing them while recording other lines, then playing both while recording guitar, creating an ‘inception’ of himself. He does the whole recording process that a band does for every song all simultaneously. When heard straight off the album, it is edited and perfected for a radio sound, but the live performance is much better and raw.
Jarle Bernhoft showed genius with his soul music, though not financially. So, due to bankruptcy, Jarle Bernhoft turned into solely Bernhoft and found true success with his live talent. As a whole, his first band-accompanied album, City Ceramic Chronicles, is his best, but his two singles on Solidarity Breaks, C’mon Talk and Choices outshine his previous endeavors.
