Palladium, Cologne, Germany23rd October 2023
Röyksopp - “TrueElectric EU Tour 2023” - Support: Mickael Karkousse
Norway’s premium electronic musician RÖYKSOPP were coming for an exclusive show to Germany on October 23rd in Cologne with album trilogy ‘Profound Mysteries I-III’. When I arrived at the Palladium, the queue was not so long and it took quite a while, until the venue filled. But at the end, I guess around 3,000 fans attended the show, some coming from far away. I never saw the band live before, only read several reviews and saw pictures, so I was very curious what to expect.
Mickael Karkousse
The evening was opened by a DJ Set (about 30 minutes) by MICKAEL KARKOUSSE. After being the creative force behind the indie-electronic band GOOSE, he began a new chapter and a new solo project, presenting hypnotic tunes combined with real-life lyricism, a musical proposal to connect with and give it your own meaning. Over the years Mickael also collaborated and composed with various artists including, and Swedish producer Blende. He’s also part of the Safari Studios collective, the recording studio and label created by the 4 GOOSE members. The danceable beats set the perfect mood for the following show. https://www.facebook.com/MickaelKarkousse
Röyksopp
RÖYKSOPP is one of the most style-defining and internationally successful electronic acts in Europe in the new millennium. The duo, which was founded in Tromsø in 1998, was able to impress immediately with the release of their debut album ‘Melody AM’. It’s the beginning of a good decade in which RÖYKSOPP advance from sound-aesthetic innovators to a globally acclaimed top act in electronic music, with multimedia concert events that rank among the most exciting of the entire genre. Speaking of multimedia: every Apple user should know at least one song by RÖYKSOPP, because back in 2001 the company licensed their piece ‘Eple’ (Norwegian for “apple”) as a welcome melody after successfully installing their operating system. But their dreamy, yet always driving sound was also well received in the traditional music world: Two Grammy nominations and winning seven Spellemann prizes are wonderful proof of this.
After the outstanding success of the debut, the two created four more fantastic and internationally successful albums until 2014. What is special - especially for a purely electronic act - is that they largely do without digital support in the production of their music and prefer to generate their sounds from analogue, sometimes downright archaic old retro synthesizers. On top of that, they invited a handful of interesting guest vocalists for each album in order to make their albums as heterogeneous and exciting as possible, including Anneli Drecker (BEL CANTO), Erlend Øye (KINGS OF CONVENIENCE), Robyn and Lykke Li. Conversely, they delivered exciting remixes for many stars, including COLDPLAY, Peter Gabriel, THE STREETS and ROOTS MANUVA.
After the two musicians and producers Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland decided in 2014 that their fifth album ‘The Inevitable End’ would be RÖYKSOPP’s last long player and they actually only released individual singles in the following eight years, the surprising about-face followed in 2022: With ‘Profound Mysteries’ not only a sixth album was released in April of the same year - at the same time the two announced that this is only the first part of a concept trilogy, which compositionally captures the state of the world and its humanity and illustrates it sonically. It is precisely this intensive understanding of the mystical relationship between people, music and nature that characterizes RÖYKSOPP’s sounds and songs, which are now also visually reflected in 30 short films for each individual track in the trilogy. The second part of ‘Profound Mysteries’ was released on August 19th, the final third part followed on November 18th followed by an exclusive, completely sold-out Germany show in Berlin. Now the formation was coming to Germany again. https://royksopp.com / https://www.facebook.com/Royksopp
Music & Performance
While during the show in Oslo in February 2023 the band had various guests on stage, today it was only the two main protagonists, supported by several dancers. Along to ‘Press “R”’, the guys entered the stage dressed in ling red robes to take their positions behind their huge DJ desk. Behind them, lots of light elements and lasers were built up. At the end, RÖYKSOPP are well-known for bombastic light shows. And they presented one today as well… bus sadly different to other shows, there was too much smoke on stage so the show lost some effect in my opinion and the artists, later on without robes but extravagant hats, were hardly visible. When the first song faded, three dancers in red robes entered the stage as well. They were the main eyecatcher during the concert, later on removing their robes.
‘Impossible’ from their latest release ‘Profound Mysteries’ followed. The album is a trilogy a comprehensive audio-visual experience and so was the live show. When ‘Monument’ (originally with ROBYN) started, a fantastic laser show put the hall in green and blue lights. As already mentioned, one of the most prominent parts of the show were the dancers. And even though fans’ opinions differ about their performance, I personally found it really energetic and contemporary, especially otherwise not much happened on stage. It was all about loud sounds and beats and dancing… so the audience was joyfully dancing too. People told me afterwards they loved the show and so did I even though the little disappointment about the smoke.
Setlist
01. Press “R”
02. The Ladder
03. Impossible
04. This Time, This Place...
05. The Girl and the Robot
06. Here She Comes Again
07. Monument (Röyksopp & Robyn cover)
08. Oh, Lover
09. Unity
10. You Don’t Have a Clue
11. The “R”
12. Breathe
13. Running to the Sea
14. What Else Is There? (Trentemoller Remix)
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15. Never Ever
16. Sordid Affair
17. Do It Again (Röyksopp & Robyn cover)
18. Like An Old Dog (Enrico Sangiuliano Remix)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.8 / 10
All pictures by Dani Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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