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Röyksopp

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Röyksopp

Röyksopp (IPA: ['ɾœʏkˌsop:]) is a Norwegian electronic music duo based in Bergen composed of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge. The group formed officially in 1998 and released their debut album Melody A.M. in 2001.

History

Brundtland and Berge were schoolmates in their hometown of Tromsø, 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 Øye, 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, "røyksopp" 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 single "Eple", one of the group's most known tracks,[citation needed] along with "Poor Leno", "Remind Me" and "Sparks". Eple (IPA: ['ɛplə]) means "apple" in Norwegian.

Röyksopp performing at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival.

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 three 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"[1] at the event. One year later the duo received a nomination to Brit Awards, the most prestigious British music award in the category "Best Group", though without winning it.

Röyksopp's second studio album The Understanding was released in 12 July 2005, preceded by the single “Only This Moment” in 27 June, 2005. The video “Only This Moment” is closely based on the events of the Paris 1968 riots[citation needed] and elements of propaganda are found throughout the video clip. The album's second single, “49 Percent”, was released on 26 September, 2005.

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.

Röyksopp's website was changed to coincide with their 10th "birthday". They released a new track “Happy Birthday” for free on 15th December 2008 to celebrate this event, in both MP3 and WAV formats.

Röyksopp's website changed again on 5 January, with details on their new album, which will be titled Junior, and will be released on 23 March 2009. The first single off the album, “Happy Up Here”, will be released on 9 March 2009, and had its first play on BBC Radio 1 on 9 Jan 2009.

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Many Röyksopp tracks have been used in commercials or as background music in television programs and movies.

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.[2] 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. Several songs including “Circuit Breaker” and “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 Tellé label before their commercial breakthrough, became popular in the UK after it was used in a T-Mobile advertisement. 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 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 and is on the iPod's playlist.

"Follow My Ruin" was included on the soundtrack of FIFA 06, the 2005 edition of EA Sports' long-running soccer video-game franchise. The single "What Else Is There?" was also used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovak Republic during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2008 film, Meet Bill.

Awards

2001

  • Best Music Video - "Eple" - Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammy)
  • Best Electronic Album - "Melody A.M."- Spellemannprisen

2002

  • Best Music Video - "Remind me" - Spellemannprisen
  • Best Music Video - "Remind Me" MTV Europe Music Awards
  • Spellemann Special Award
  • Best Pop - "Melody A.M. - Alarmprisen (an important Norwegian award)
  • Best House/Techno - "Melody A.M." -Alarmprisen
  • Best Music - "Eple" - Alarmprisen

2005

  • Best Pop Group - Spellemannprisen

2006

  • Best Club - "The Understanding" - Alarmprisen

Discography

Main article: Röyksopp discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Other albums

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.musicone.de/leftcat02026670royksopp.php
  2. ^ http://www.mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2003112417001949865873
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