RöYKSOPP

'Röyksopp' () is an electronic music duo based in Bergen, Norway composed of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge. The group formed officially in 1998 and released their debut album ''Melody A.M.'' in 2001.

Contents

History

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Other albums

Hit singles

Other Tracks

Remixes

See also

External links

History

Despite the fact that Brundtland and Berge were schoolmates in their hometown of Tromsø and experimented with electronic instruments in the early 90s, Röyksopp only appeared years later when they met again in Bergen. The city was a vital scene for underground electronic music at this time, and the band worked with other Norwegian musicians such as Frost, Kings of Convenience’s guitarist/singer Erlend Øye, Those Norwegians and Drum Island in what was called the Bergen Wave. Their first singles were released by local independent label Tellé, and their album ''Melody A.M.'' on British label Wall of Sound. It spawned singles like "Eple", "Poor Leno", "Remind Me" and "Sparks".
The popularity of the duo’s album was boosted by several graphically experimental music videos. One of them, an infographic-styled video by French company H5 for the track "Remind Me", won the 2002 MTV Europe Music Award for best music video.
The song "Eple" was licensed by Apple for use as the welcome music to the company’s Mac OS X Panther operating system, playing the first time a user booted a new Mac. It was also used as the music for the title sequence for BBC World’s Click Online (now Click) and as background music during DJ talk on Virgin Radio. A small snippet of the song also is used for the station ID for American public television station KLRU, as well as for their identical production logo featured at the end of their productions such as Austin City Limits. "Eple", pronunciation per , means "apple" in Norwegian.
Röyksopp's first single "So Easy" became popular in the UK after it was used in a T-Mobile advert.
The word Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, "røyksopp" or literally, "smoke mushroom".
''The Understanding'' was released on 12th July 2005, preceded by the single "Only This Moment" on 27th June, 2005. The video "Only This Moment" is closely based on the events of the Paris 1968 riots and elements of propaganda are found throughout the video clip. The album's second single, “49 Percent”, was released on 26th September, 2005. They also started to gain some fame on the other side of the Atlantic as "Follow My Ruin" was included on the soundtrack of FIFA 06, the 2005 edition of EA Sports' long-running football video-game franchise.
Their latest 1 disk album ''Back to Mine'' which came out in the US on March 5th 2007 and UK on April 27th 2007 is based on songs of different artists.
As expected Back To Mine consists of upbeat, lively dance cover versions of widely various artists. The stylistics of tracks chosen by Röyksopp keeps to funk and electronic music of 80's representing a peculiar catalogue of those artists who has influenced Röyksopp music. The list of performers varies from such celebrities as "Talking Heads" and "Mike Oldfield" to less popular "Supermax". Each track is unique; sometimes beats and samples used by Röyksopp offer quite unexpected twists of mood within a certain song. However, Röyksopp tries to stick to reasonable limits keeping the flavor of 80's disco and sunshine of pure funk. As for the most felicitous songs, among the leaders there are definitely such tracks as Legs ("Art Of Noise") and Sphinx ("Harry Thamann") with its hypnotic voice. Dirty Talk (Klein and MBO) can be called a modern interpretation of 8 bit games melodies.
Currently "Remind Me", one of the two Röyksopp and Erlend Øye collaborations found on Melody A.M., can be heard in a Geico car insurance commercial in the U.S. The commercial is the fourth of the "It's so easy a caveman could do it" ads, and features said caveman in an airport terminal when he comes across the inflammatory ad campaign. The song is also heard in the background of Geico's caveman site http://www.cavemanscrib.com and is on the iPod's playlist.
The single "What Else Is There?" was also used in an O2 television advert in the Czech Republic (advert on YouTube).

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Other albums

Hit singles

'From ''Melody A.M.'':'

'From ''The Understanding'':'

Other Tracks

★ "64 Position" (B-side to the original vinyl pressing of ''So Easy''.)

★ "A Quiet Life" (featured on a compilation album of Norwegian artists entitled "Arctic Circles 3".)

★ "A Special Time of Year" (only played in Live shows.)

★ "Two Headed Monster" (a song only played live, on setlist of Fuji Rock Festival 03')

★ "College Jacket" (only played in Live shows.)

★ "Don't Give Up" (a cover of a song by The Whitest Boy Alive, track that later developed into ''49 Percent'')

★ "Don't Go" (track featured on some versions of the "Sparks" single. It is essentially a remix of ''Please Stay'' by Mekon without vocal parts)

★ "Flax" (B-side to the original vinyl pressing of the ''Eple'' single.)

★ "Fusion's Alright" (B-side to the original vinyl pressing of ''So Easy''.)

★ "Meatball" (On the compilation album under the pseudonym "''Emmanuel Splice''")

★ "Nok E Nok" (a fan favourite they played for encores.)

★ "Om Ra vuling" (many have believed it to be Om rævpuling, but this word is quite filthy in the Norwegian language, some now call it Clean Sweep live.) A song only played live. It has not yet been featured on any album, although it has become Clean Sweep on the Special Edition CD.

★ "Wooden Leg" (featured on a Live album for the Le Big Sloppy Kiss Electronic Festival which took place in Norway, October 1999.)

★ "Your Hands" (featured on a compilation album of Norwegian artists entitled "Arctic Circles 2".)

★ "Come (vocal version)" (featured on a demo given to Beatservice Records but never released)

★ "A Place Where Love is Found" (vocal version of Flax also featured on the unreleased Beatservice demo)

Remixes

★ Anneli Drecker - Sexy Love (Röyksopp's Romantiske Sloyd Mix)

★ Annie - Heartbeat (Röyksopp's Mindre Tilgengelige Remix)

★ Athome Project - A Feeling Of Care (Tre Nøtter Til Röyksopp)

★ Beck - Still Missing (Röyksopp Remix)

★ Coldplay - Clocks (Röyksopp's Instrumental Trembling Heart Remix)

★ Coldplay - Clocks [Röyksopp’s White Label Remix]

★ Coldplay - Clocks (Röyksopp's Trembling Heart Remix)

★ Eri Nobuchika - Sing A Song (Röyksopp I Kramsno remix)

★ Felix Da Housecat - What Does It Feel Like (Röyksopp remix)

★ Frost - Endless love (Röyksopp analogue euromix)

★ Kings Of Convenience - I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Röyksopp Instrumental Remix)

★ Kings Of Convenience - I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Röyksopp Remix)

★ Mekon - Please Stay (Röyksopp Dub Remix)

★ Mekon - Please Stay (Röyksopp Remix)

★ Mickey Factz - Remind Me (Röyksopp Remix)

★ Peter Gabriel - My Head Sounds Like That (Röyksopp Remix)

★ Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow (featured on the live album Röyksopp's Night Out)

★ Roots Manuva - Colossal Insight (Röyksopp remix)

★ Spiller - Cry Baby (Röyksopp's Målselves Memorabilia mix)

★ The Streets - Weak Become Heroes (Röyksopp Dub)

★ The Streets - Weak Become Heroes (Röyksopp Memory Lane Mix)

★ Coldplay - Politik (never released for unknown reasons)

See also

★ Bjørn Torske

★ Erlend Øye

★ Anne Lilia Berge Strand

★ Anneli Drecker

★ Kate Havnevik

★ Karin Dreijer

★ Chelonis R Jones

External links

★ Röyksopp's Official site

★ Röyksopp at MySpace

★ Röyksopp at Last.fm

★ Röyksopp at Musicbrainz

★ Wall of Sound

★ Astralwerks

★ Labels

★ Unofficial forum

★ Back to mine review

★ Geico Caveman Commercial

★ Full list of Discography

★ Röyksopp Concert Pictures

★ Röyksopp Downloads

★ 1 Hour Length Concert Recording

★ Röyksopp live in Århus, Denmark - Concert Pictures