ROYKSOPP (Electronica)

(Thanks to Kaleid)

Origin: Tromsř, Norway
Genre(s): Electronic music, Downtempo, Trip-hop
Years active: 1998–present

Site: http://www.royksopp.com/

Members:
Torbjřrn Brundtland
Svein Berge


Brundtland and Berge were schoolmates in their hometown of Tromsř, experimenting with electronic instruments in the early 90s. However, the duo did not appear as Röyksopp until 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 Řye, Those Norwegians and Drum Island in what was called the Bergen Wave.

The word Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, "rřyksopp" or literally, "smoke mushroom".

Röyksopp's first singles were released by local independent label Tellé, and their album Melody A.M. on British label Wall of Sound. It spawned the singles "Eple", "Poor Leno", "Remind Me" and "Sparks".

The popularity of the duo’s music 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. In this same event the duo was nominated in 3 more categories: "Best Nordic Act", "Best New Artist" and "Best Dance Act", but only won the award for best video. The duo performed the song "Poor Leno" at the event.

Many Röyksopp tracks have been used in commercials or as background music in television programs. 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 IPA (means "apple" in Norwegian). Several songs including Circuit Breaker, Only This Moment were used in an episode in the Danish Television's consumer programme, named Rabatten.

Röyksopp's first single So Easy, originally released on the Telle label before their commercial breakthrough, became popular in the UK after it was used in a T-Mobile advert which is available to watch. The song was re-released as a single in the UK, combined with "Remind Me".

Currently "Remind Me", one of the two Röyksopp and Erlend Řye 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.

Röyksopp's second studio album The Understanding was released in 12th July 2005, preceded by the single "Only This Moment" in 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. The single "What Else Is There?" was also used in an O2 television advert in the Czech Republic and in Slovak Republic (2008). As well as in the 2006 film Cashback.

In 2006, Röyksopp released a nine-track live album, called "Röyksopp's Night Out". The album contains a new dance version of their single "Sparks" and a reinterpretation of the song Go with the Flow, originally by Queens of the Stone Age.

In 2007, Röyksopp compiled their favourite tracks by other artists for the Back to Mine series. The album was released in the US on March 5th 2007 and in the UK on April 27th 2007. The album also includes their own track "Meatball", released under the pseudonym "Emmanuel Splice", which is actually a remix version of Mike Oldfield's "North Star/Platinum Finale" off of the album "Platinum".

The duo are currently putting the final touch to their third studio album, which is set for release later this year (2008).


Discography

Studio albums:
* Melody A.M. (2001) #9 UK #1 NOR # 69 NL #84 FR #50 SWE
* The Understanding (2005) #13 UK #1 NOR #48 NL #45 FR #39 FIN #7 SWE #41 GER

Live albums:
* Röyksopp's Night Out (2006)

Other albums:
* Back to Mine (2007) #13 UK #24 NOR


Awards

2001
* Best Music Video - Eple - Spellemann (the Norwegian equivalent to Grammy Awards)
* Best Electronic Album - Melody A.M.- Spellemann

2002
* Best Music Video - Spellemann
* Best Music Video - MTV Europe Music Awards
* Spellemann Award

2005
* Best Pop Group - Spellemann