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Royksopp Information
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'Röyksopp' (sometimes spelt 'Royksopp' or 'Ré¸yksopp') are an electronic music duo based in Bergen, Norway composed of Torbjé¸rn Brundtland and Svein Berge. The group formed officially in 1998 and released their debut album Melody A.M. in 2001.
History
Despite the fact that Brundtland and Berge were schoolmates in their hometown of Tromsé¸ and experimented with electronic instruments in the early 90s, Röyksopp only appeared years later when they met again in Bergen. The city had a vital scene for underground electronic music at this time, and they got to work with other Norwegian musicians such as Frost, Kings of Convenience, Those Norwegians and Drum Island in what was called the Bergen Wave. Their first singles were released by local independent label Tellé and later as the word spread, they got to release the 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 Computer for use as the startup music to the company's Mac OS X Panther operating system, playing the first time a user booted a new Mac. Eple (pronounced Ep-le, rather than Ep-pull as thought by many) 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, which literally means "(the) smoke mushroom", is the Norwegian name for the Lycoperdale genus in the fungus kingdom, a type of mushroom that will make a smoky cloud if touched. Norwegians pronounce the word as in IPA, which an English speaker can try to approximate with roik-sopp (not soap).
Their new album 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 World War (eg. riots, banners etc). Elements of propaganda are found throughout the video clip. The duo's second single, 49 Percent was released on 26th September, 2005.
Discography
Albums
Melody A.M. #9 UK (charted in 2002)
The Understanding #13 UK
Remind Me So Easy
Poor Leno
Eple
Sparks
Only This Moment
49 Percent
What Else Is There?
Hit singles
'From Melody A.M.:'
* 2002 "Remind Me / So Easy" #21 UK
* 2002 "Poor Leno" #38 UK
* 2003 "Eple" #16 UK
* 2003 "Sparks" #41 UK
'From The Understanding:'
* 2005 "Only This Moment" #33 UK
* 2005 "49 Percent" #55 UK
* 2005 "What Else Is There?" #32 UK
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