RES Features: RES 10

Röyksopp

Among This Year's RES 10

Words: Sandy Hunter

Photo: Ruvan Wijesooriya

Norwegian electronic smoothies Svein Berge and Torbjorn Brundtland -- who make up the brilliant Röyksopp -- blend decades-old musical ambience with chill digital production.

But Röksopp's critically acclaimed debut LP Melody A.M. was assembled vis-á-vis the more retro time frame. "We're both fans of the album format," explains Berge from Röyksopp's studio in Bergen. "Not necessarily vinyl, but the format we grew up with, a two-sided LP, about 45 to 50 minutes long with five or six tracks per side. When we made the album, the idea was making it coherent and complete. The space between the tracks has to come naturally."

Such craft resulted in a collection with enough eclectic nuances to encourage repeated listening. The album's pleasingly-out-of-tune melodies mingle with evenly doctored vocals and a host of rhythmic variations. Vocoder-filtered singing by fellow Bergen-based musicians Erlend Öye on "Remind Me" and "Poor Leno" somehow conjures half-remembered cinema moments -- sometimes ghostly, sometimes cabaret.

Berge and Brundtland grew up friends in the remote northern town of Tromso, spending ample time at the Scandinavian equivalent of Radio Shack. Years later, against the more cosmopolitan setting of Norway's second city, the pair continues to refine their sound, which explores state-of-the-art digital technology, vintage keyboards, reconstructed samples and a smorgasbord of instruments. In addition to being skilled studio hands, these blokes are a rare exception in the world of electronic music, also putting on a mind-blowing live show, with full-on guitars, guest vocalists, drums and dazzling lights and video projections. Americans will get their first taste when they tour the US in March.

"People don't have the full Röyksopp from the album," continues Berge. "With our remixes, you don't really know what you will get. We've done stuff that is relaxed and similar to the album, but also some strictly for the dance floor." Röyksopp has reinterpreted Felix Da Housecat, The Streets, Peter Gabriel and Bergen locals Kings of Convenience.

Röyksopp has earned deserved adulation, too, for a spate of animated music videos. "Eple," directed by former Bergen resident Thomas Hilland, interweaves holiday snapshost, while "Poor Leno," directed by Sam Arthur, is the tale of a sad Scandinavian zoo inmate. And H5's elaborate video for "Remind Me" earned the 2002 MTV Europe Award for Best Video. "We love animation and we purposefully excluded ourselves from the videos," says Berge. "In the late '80s when we got into house music, the phenomenon of the faceless musician was really appealing. We didn't want to start with the image and then the music. Rather, we present the music and people can get to know us gradually. Now, to be shallow, people can look at our beautiful faces."