Röyksopp - Junior [2009]

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Röyksopp 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.

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 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" 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.

On March 23 2009, Röyksopp's third studio album Junior is set to be released, which will feature the single Happy Up Here and ten other tracks, including a track with Robyn. This third album was released four years after the previous album, but Röyksopp are going to return towards the end of 2009 with another new album, Senior. This is the closest together any Röyksopp albums have been released to date, with only 8 months between them.
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”, debuted on BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong show on 9 Jan 2009. It was officially released digitally on January 18, 2009 and it will be released physically on 9 March 2009. The music video directed by Reuben Sutherland has been unveiled at the end of February. It features the old arcade classic game Space Invaders, which is being played in the "real world" when the song is heard in the background. Both the single and the video were met with positive reactions from the press and fans. Junior will be followed by an album Senior, a counterpart to Junior, which is quiet, "withdrawn and introspective" and "create an atmosphere and an ambience".