Röyksopp’s music career still going strong today

There are no lyrics on Röyksopp’s latest album, Senior. But by no means does that imply that Röyksopp has nothing to say.

To listen to Senior is to take an ethereal journey to that place in your mind where worry and stress cease to exist.

If there were a soundtrack for souls ascending to heaven, Röyksopp has made it. And don’t worry, you can bop your head along the way.

“With Senior we basically wanted to tell something about a stage in life that is yet to come for us,” said  Svein Berge of Röyksopp. “Mainly the later years where we imagine that if there is such a thing as a protagonist on the album, this person has to deal with things like doubt and also consequences for the choices that the protagonist has made earlier in life.”

Norwegian duo Torbjørn Brundtland and Berge have been making and mixing music together since they were minors in Tromsø, Norway.

Their ability to feed off one another in the studio resulted in a creative explosion of musical talent known to the world as Röyksopp.

Röyksopp established itself within the electronic genre with its first album, Melody A.M. The duo has left an indelible impression on the music world ever since, with a career marked by four albums as well as nominations for both a Brit Award and a Grammy.

“We like to be a bit ambiguous. That’s the kind of feeling we like to project onto the listener … you’re being taken somewhere and you kind of get it but not necessarily the full thing,” Berge said.

Oddly enough, the ambiguity that can be wrested from Senior is the result of a deeply engrained bond that Berge and Brundtland share over their music.

“Without asking Torbjørn, I will know whether he likes a specific count or not,” Berge said. “I will know whether he likes that snare or not because we are so in tune when it comes to what works or what does not work, or what we can do and what we cannot do.”

Berge describes the recording process and rituals in the studio as a collaborative and equal effort.

“We basically do the same thing. It’s not as if one has a certain role that is more dominating than the other,” Berge said.  We sit together side by side and do the same things, it’s the way we’ve always been working, and I think that’s where the energy lies.”

Fittingly released before Röyksopp’s Senior was the album Junior. Where Junior is the energetic wild child, Senior is the wise sage that offers listeners repose and introspection.

The two albums were made simultaneously but released separately. One the yin, the other the yang, together they imbue a balanced sense of vitality and gentility.

Röyksopp’s evolution and longevity as a duo has been aided by its ability to distill seemingly unfamiliar musical genres into something that becomes its own sound.

“I can listen to R. Kelly just as much as I can listen to Deadmau5 or Led Zeppelin … as long as it’s good it will do something for me and I think that’s also partially why we sound the way we sound,” Berge said.

Berge also admitted such appreciation for diverse sounds did not come early for him.

“When I was about 12 I was probably more dogmatic and strict in my musical preferences or selections than I am now,” Berge said. “I really hated anything that had guitars and smelt of anything acoustic but obviously I’ve softened a bit and I’m a bit more open now.”

Röyksopp will play at the Wiltern tonight and viewers can expect to see something best described as otherworldly.

“Some people might expect that we will do a Senior tour which I would assume would be more down tempo and introverted,” Berge said. “Those people will be disappointed. It will be a Röyksopp tour and it will consist of old classics as well as new hits. It will be the whole variety.”

The duo’s entire persona lies in eliciting a response from listeners and concertgoers.

“The main thing for us is to give people a feeling that evokes some sort of reaction,” Berge said.