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Röyksopp – ‘Profound Mysteries’ and ‘Profound Mysteries II’ review: a retro-futuristic rave

The dance duo invite Astrid S, Alison Goldfrapp and Susanne Sundfør along for a double album ride into Scandi melancholy and nostalgic dance

“The overarching thing with ‘Profound Mysteries’ is to trigger your imagination – to get your senses going,” Röyksopp’s Sven Berge recently told NME of the Norwegian electro duo’s mission statement for their new double album project. The pair have mastered the art of painting vivid scenery and moodscapes better than most dance acts. Their peak arrived with their now-seminal 2001 debut album ‘Melody A.M .’, an immaculate collection of blissed-out, ambient chill-house with a crystalline sound and Balearic backbeats; it somehow sounded like it was coming from both Bergen and Ibiza at the same time.

First instalment ‘Profound Mysteries’, released in April, is meant as a reintroduction to the duo after the somewhat bleak and death-obsessed 2014 predecessor ‘The Inevitable End’. As such, it’s anchored by laidback moments such as the glacially instrumental ‘(Nothing But) Ashes’ and the low-key, Gorillaz -y jam ‘The Ladder’. Then there’s the spacey but arresting mood piece ‘How The Flowers Grow’, featuring 4AD signee Pixx, and collabs with Norwegian sad-pop queen Susanne Sundfør (the bittersweet ‘The Mourning Sun’ and the towering, ABBA -sized Scandi melancholy of ‘If You Want Me’).

It’s lifted however, by ravier moments such as the Beki Mari-starring dancefloor destroyer ‘This Time, This Place…’, the infectiously radio-friendly ‘Impossible’ – which features electro royalty Alison Goldfrapp – and ‘Breathe’ with rising Nordic popster Astrid S . This is the mood that paves the way for ‘Profound Mysteries II’, a 10-track romp that “points to the inspirational genres and artists who helped to forge us when we were kids,” as Berge told us.

Opener ‘Denimclad Baboons’ lathers that Röyksopp squelch over trip-hop beats and tones of ‘90s rave. Astrid S lends more sultry vocals to the beachside bliss of ‘Let’s Get It Right’ and ‘Unity’ belongs on a sweaty Madchester dancefloor. ‘Oh, Lover’, meanwhile, marries a Daft Punk disco stomp with a retro-futuristic romance and ‘Control’ fuses the house stylings of Adamski with Kraftwerk. There’s eclecticism elsewhere too: ‘Tell Him’, again with Sundfør, exudes a more traditional Fleetwood Mac approach but ‘Some Resolve’ has all the synthy shimmer of a truly almighty Depeche Mode sci-fi meltdown.

It’s a satisfying ride. This smooth and consistent journey through nostalgia and the energy of new ideas means that ‘Profound Mysteries’ parts one and two stand up as latter-day career triumphs for Röyksopp. Taken as a whole, it’s certainly their finest collection of music since ‘Melody AM’ – and the opening of a bold new chapter.

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Release date: April 29 and August 19 respectively

Record label: Dog Triumph

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Profound Mysteries

By Eric Torres

Electronic / Pop/R&B

Dog Triumph

May 3, 2022

For more than two decades, the Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp made their mark on svelte electro pop and sprawling, atmospheric soundscapes alike, with recognizably clean production guaranteed along the way. After five albums, Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland grew weary of the grind, and they billed 2014’s The Inevitable End as a “goodbye to the traditional album format.” If the sendoff seemed vague, that was the point; the duo didn’t really retire, instead opting to plumb their archives for their Lost Tapes series and turn to film and theater collaborations. In the interim, nevertheless, Röyksopp created an entire new album’s worth of material. “Let’s just say that we have to go back on a promise we made in the past,” they conceded in a post to fans this past January.

The resulting Profound Mysteries contains both music and a multimedia project, including a cryptic website , images, and 10 videos made by the film production company Bacon that attempt to expand on the collection’s larger theme, which grapples with the unknowability of the universe. All of the clips (which the band call “films”) are surreal and oblique; however pivotal to the project they are meant to be, they’re hardly necessary viewing. The actual songs vary from sleepy piano interludes to moody, charging electro pop. The back-and-forth doesn’t always work, but Röyksopp still land on some of their most energizing floor-fillers to date.

They have recruited an inspired roster of guest artists, availing themselves of Alison Goldfrapp ’s hypnotic soprano and Susanne Sundfør ’s folky croon. The singers’ lightweight voices give the project a welcome unifying thread, as though each is gently stepping in to bolster the duo’s barreling electronics. On the brooding “Impossible,” Goldfrapp murmurs about rolling thunder and a world on fire over a gummy synth reminiscent of Daft Punk ; the song is a solid reminder that Goldfrapp remains a quietly powerful force who can control a dance song with little more than a breathy sigh. The seven-minute highlight “This Time… This Place” takes a harder approach, opening with breakneck techno before paring back into a sturdy, clean beat for singer Beki Mari. By the time it hits the six-minute mark, the song devolves into a swirl of Mari’s voice, dreamy synth lines, and a shuffling drum beat, evoking the gauzy, after-hours feeling of watching the sun rise over the dancefloor after a late night out.

When the musicians decompress with midtempo, instrumental tracks, the buzzing, high-octane effect of the other songs dissipates. Both “(Nothing But) Ashes” and “There, Beyond the Trees” are guided by sedate piano and synth melodies that are detached rather than affecting. On “The Ladder,” Röyksopp fare slightly better, unspooling a loose, space-age synth line over pattering drums to create a light stroll through the kind of gentle synth pop that the pair have all but mastered at this point.

The best songs on Profound Mysteries operate within those comfort zones, making it more of a return to form than even The Inevitable End , but Röyksopp still trip themselves up. While the euphoric, ascendant melodies gesture toward otherworldly grandeur, the drifting instrumentals and forgettable, abstract lyrics keep them from quite scaling those heights. But then, trying to capture a subject as hefty as the mysteries of the universe is bound to be an unwieldy pursuit.

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Röyksopp’s much teased Profound Mysteries is a multidimensional adventure

"profound mysteries".

Thankfully, the guillotine has been retracted, and eight years later Profound Mysteries is released. With it comes the inevitable end of their traditional album format, and the unavoidable beginning of a new Röyksopp era – one with a lot more detail than first meets the ears.

They’ve collaborated with multifaceted artists such as Jonathan Zawada and Kasper Häggström, to create videos and virtual installations that complement their music. It’s up to us to find the profundity – it could be the futuristic visuals, or the naturistic song titles that turn our faces towards the preciousness of the Earth and precariousness of the humans on it. Whatever dual philosophies Röyksopp has us contemplating this decade, make sure to delve into their online portal to find yourself in a world of fashion, art and soul searching.

Profound Mysteries is a tautology in title, but diverse in content. “Where the Flowers Grow” and “(Nothing But) Ashes” are tracks intense and ponderous enough to be on the soundtrack to a Safdie Brothers film. While others, like “Breathe”, still serve those nostalgic clinching dance rhythms from early Y2K. “If You Want Me” is Röyksopp’s attack at a ballad which just about stays clear of the anthemic, while “The Ladder”, is what I envisage the musical child of Kavinsky and The Knife to sound like – gloriously eerie and totally naked.

Röyksopp uses the treasures found on their eight year gap to create a theatrical, dramatic, literal work of art – one which has more relevance through your headphones than busting from a speaker in Spectrum. It’s a move towards a more organic electronic sound, heard in their pre-released single, “Impossible”, which is made possible by the haunting vocals of Alison Goldfrapp, who adds a fit amount of humanity to the contagious dance track.

Profound Mysteries doesn’t quite have the timelessness of Melody AM , but it certainly lives up to Röyksopp’s reputation as a duo that has perfected the art of dishing out electronic hugs. Despite the connotations of ‘profound’, they stay on the right side of arty party and continue to attract veterans, as well as visually stimulated newbies, to the wavy ocean of Nordic electronica.

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Profound Mysteries II

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Röyksopp is a two-headed norwegian monster, dealing within the realm of contemporary electronic music.

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