Many a debut solo album is a chance for self-reflection, but Leprous’ singer and keyboardist Einar Solberg hasn’t worked entirely alone after seven long-players made with the band. “The whole idea of the album,” he says, “was to collaborate, 50/50, with one composer on each song.” However, there’s an emotional thread to 16 that’s very personal.
As Solberg’s glacial falsetto relates on the title track, enhanced by the cello of co-writer Raphael Weinroth-Browne, ‘It took me 16 years to realise/That I was meant to walk through winter nights/When doubt appeared in my mind.’ He’s called this collection of songs “the closest I’ve ever come to writing a concept album”, and lyrically it focuses on a time in his life when he was undergoing personal turmoil while also finding solace in music and joining his first bands.
