"We had a fantasy about playing live with one really big instrument, so together with our very creative clan in Bergen we built a machine of metal with which we incorporated all our synthesisers and drum machines in one big device."

Hmm...?

You could be mistaken for believing you were reading the new Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Korgs Under The Sea, but you'd be wrong. For these are the irony-free tones of Torbjorn Brundtland, one half of Nordic funksters R_yksopp with his partner in rhyme Svein Berge, chatting about their mechanical hobby.

And no two people are better suited to be releasing the first musical meanderings of the 21st century than these boys. If ever there was a more pure crystalline mix of 20th century harmonics flowing under 21st century stalactites of sound, we'll eat our icicles.

If the glacial imagery is all too much to bear, try picturing yourself growing up in Tromso, Norway (as near as dammit on the Arctic circle) where you played with the Northern Lights, not the latest Atari game, and the closest you got to "dance music" was the local reindeer farmers' barndance.

Fast-forward ten years from those frosty beginnings Royksopp have conjured up an album of magical leftfield beauty. "Back in 1993, we were in school and everyone was playing heavy guitar and we almost got beaten up for starting to experimenting with electronics!" laughs Svein now. Finding the Tromso school music room a bit lacking in electronic gizmos the dastardly duo hit on the clever ruse of borrowing pieces of equipment from electronic shops to "test them out," using them to make music then taking them back and choosing a different sound source.

Going their separate ways after leaving school, the pair had a reunion in Bergen a couple of years back when they plotted R_yksopp and sowed the seeds of Melody A.M.

So how do they describe their sound? "It's us searching for the truth," Torbjorn states bluntly. "But if we came up with one sentence it would be to combine the harmonies of film music and of classical composers such as Erik Satie and melodies of Francis Lai (arty porn film producer) with the analogue warmth of Seventies and the fatness of the Eighties over a thorough beat programming."

And you canït really add anything to that.

Except that Royksopp is something very special. Thanks to their work with Kings Of Convenience, Those Norwegians, and Drum Island the boys are at the heart of the Nordic funk. Their album twinkles like the Northern Lights, has the warmth of a well-worn Rhodes, and manages to mix up styles like Love Unlimited having a snowball fight with Mad Professor over at Brian Eno's pad.

As Svein says "we've found a niche and we think it's something people really want ... but maybe they don't know it."


One of the hallmarks of a great band is the consumate ease with which that group constantly strive to adapt, to evolve, to innovate; thereby ensuring that they never repeat themselves or do something tepid or commonplace.
After the inordinate success of their debut album, the electronic shot in the arm that was Melody A.M., Röyksopp could have easily rested on their laurels, be content to shine their halos and just knocked out Melody A.M. part deux.
Why just look at the riches that unfolded in the wake of that album's release in October 2001: 1,000,000 copies sold worldwide, 500,000 of them in the UK alone; tours with Basement Jaxx and Moby, not to mention headline tours of their own, culminating in two ecstatic nights at London's Somerset House and an appearance at Glastonbury; a Brit nomination for Best International Group; an MTV Europe Award for Best Video and remixes for A-list artists as disparate as The Streets, Coldplay and Felix Da Housecat.
Thankfully, Torbjörn Brundtland and Svein Berge belong in the aforementioned group of venerated artists. That's why The Understanding, the duo's supposed 'difficult second album' lest we forget, is so special. Once more defying easy categorisation - it lurches from delicate widescreen cinerama to haunting house by way of boisterous electro bug outs - it is resolutely different to their first opus, but reassuringly the same in excellence. The same then, but even better.
And whereas their curiousity on Melody A.M. took them from the producer's studio to the live arena, here their undeniable wanderlust has seen them assume the mantle of 21st Century electronic singer-songwriters.
"We needed to do something different," explains Svein. "Something that was new to us, hence the lyrical approach."
"We had to change our hairstyles though, we had to have bigger hair," says Torbjørn, thus confirming in one instant that their surreal humour remains intact. "At one point we even had proper beards, some of it still remains." Adds Svein. "You see, it's part of the process you go through: the longer the hair and the beard, the more beaujolais you drink. It's stage three of the seven stages of songwriting."
Stage seven, the attainment of songwriting enlightenment, is still unclear should you ask. But no matter, emboldened by their forays into playing live - "You can pop 'On The Road' on your CV," Svein helpfully states. "It's an icebreaker, it shows you've got life experience," - the confidence that they achieved 'On The Road!' meant that the only pressure they felt going into the studio to record The Understanding was that which was applied by the studio building's odd job man. Eh?
"He was always trying to find repair work," Torbjörn says. "He would tell us that the bass drum was broken so we couldn't use it. He was the only one adding pressure. Seriously, who was supposed to add the pressure? The record buying public? I don't think so. The critics? We're not afraid of them. Our mindset, even on Melody A.M., has always been to do our own thing."
It's an ethos that's served them well. First track, Triumphant, serves notice of their 'own thing': a highly charged, Eno-esque, piece of emotional ambience it sets the scene for the multi-textual layers that follow. Lead single Only This Moment, featuring new vocalist Kate Havnevik, is joyous robotic soul soaked in a sunshine irridesence, while the stretched grooves of 49 Percent betray a Prince-like fascination with Paisley Park psychedelic electro.
Sombre Detune shows a darker side while Follow My Ruin is electronic body music gone pop, which by rights should sound dreadful. It doesn't. It's sublime. What Else Is There, fronted by Karin Dreijer from The Knife, evokes an eerie Kate Bush meets Bjork coupling and Alpha Male is this album's riposte to Röyksopp's Night Out, a gradual epic sweep redolent of John Carpenter giving way to a high octane rush.
The shimmering narcolepsy of Dead To The World and Tristesse Globalle rounds affairs off beautifully, but with a title as playful as The Understanding, what does it all mean? For their part, Torbjørn and Svein aren't saying. Not for the time being anyway.
"Yes there is meaning," Svein says. "But we believe there's room for your own interpretation. Listen to the album and see if you can come up with your own."
Torbjørn: "It's like a classical painting like the Mona Lisa. When you tell people what they should look for, they only look at that thing." A cop out? Not a bit. Anyway, they plan to let everyone know the real meaning of the album at a symposium a few months down the line. "We'll hold the conference in Asia," Torbjørn proffers.
So, having side-stepped the thorny issue of making Melody A.M. II - The Understanding is generated in a rawer, more direct way they suggest - which album do the pair prefer?
"That would be like comparing my children," Torbjørn retorts. "Not that I have any."
Svein takes the analogy one step further. Towards the gutter. "It's like trying to compare two testicles. One is not better than the other. Both are vital to the Röyksopp anatomy."
Röyksopp: The Understanding. It's good to have them back. Different, but the same. The same, but better. Onwards and upwards...

Röyksopp - The Understand is released on the 27th June 2005 (Wall Of Sound). Live shows to be announced soon.