Artist of the week...Röyksopp

You will come to find that I am a little bias when it comes to musicians from Norway. This week, I want to tell you about my favorite electronic music group from the great northern nation.

Röyksopp, from Tromsø, Norway is composed of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge. They officially formed in 1998 and released their debut album Melody A.M. in 2001. Brundtland and Berge went to school together in Tromsø, it was at that time they first experimented with electronic instruments. However, the duo did not appear as Röyksopp until years later when they met again in the city of Bergen, a vital scene for underground electronic music. The band worked with other Norwegian musicians such as Frost, Kings of Convenience’s guitarist/singer Erlend Øye.

Not only is Röyksopp's music very alluring, their music videos are very innovative and at times a bit psychedelic. See "Poor Leno" from their first album Melody A.M.



I highly recommend you check these guys out. So far they only have three albums, but each one is PACKED with great content. I can listen to all three without having the desire to skip over any tracks. You may actually be VERY familiar with some of their music and not even know it. 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. The commercial is the fourth of the "It's so easy a caveman could do it" ads, and features a caveman in an airport terminal when he comes across the inflammatory ad campaign.



CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL SONG

*Random fact, the word "Röyksopp" literally means "smoke mushroom" in Norwegian and is also known as a puffball mushroom. This same word can also be used to describe the mushroom clouds that are the result of atomic bombs, so this imagery is also inherent in their name.