Röyksopp

Warning. This review might spoil a few surprises for you. Nothing life-changing, mind you, but the writer feels that Röyksopp's current live show benefits greatly from all its small, delightful touches, ideas and surprises. If you're planning to see them in 2005, hold off reading further. Otherwise, here's the account of a lovely autumn evening.

The Elysée Montmartre is one of the capital's best-known concert halls: it looks like a small theatre, with its stucco work and its vaulted ceiling. It's one of those typical venues where bands about to break through play, or ones that already have a solid following among the so-called niche audience. It's the antechamber to Paris's grand halls like Olympia and Grand Rex, which in turn are the last step before the huge crowds of Zénith and Bercy. Sigur Rós played here, for instance, before the release of "( )". Of course, playing the Elysée Montmartre doesn't automatically guarantee a future of hits, but it does certify a certain status.

As for spectators, or would-be ones, Paris is a city that offers plenty of options. To go see Röyksopp tonight, I passed up Oasis (no great loss, to be honest), Sonic Youth (a tribute to John Lennon on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to him at the Cité de la Musique) and Sufjan Stevens (found out too late...). Until I learn how to be in several places at once, I'm going with the band that surprised me the most this year.

Completely unannounced, not even mentioned on tonight's tickets (like mine), opening the show is Sébastien Tellier. A show for two: a keyboardist and him, splitting his time between guitar and a hulking Yamaha keyboard. Third time I've seen him, third version of himself: tonight he seems far more interested in doing cabaret than in letting us actually listen to his songs, all recast in a grotesque key, deliberately overplayed, with performances that are constantly over the top. He sings "Universe", one of his best tracks, while smoking a cigarette through his nose. He shouts, strikes poses straight out of the French chansonnier tradition, and downs more than half a bottle of wine in half an hour. Fun, but musically a bit too flimsy this time round.

We have to wait quite a while to see Röyksopp. Almost the entire length of friend Erlend Øye's solo album, to be precise, but the staging alone is already thrilling. As the intro of "Computer World" plays, the veil covering the set drops, revealing a varied array of lights and an enormous inflatable cassette tape with "Röyksopp" written on it. Some people have pigs, others have cassette tapes. The pair make their entrance dressed as Kraftwerk (!), the only difference being that their trousers are grey instead of black. Otherwise, nothing is missing, from the immaculate shoes to the red shirt and the narrow black tie.

The liaison with the old Kraftwerk, though, lies mainly in the attitude. No laptop on stage, just synthesizers and Roland electronic drums. Among the new electronic acts, Röyksopp remain among the few who haven't given in to the temptation of a "live" rhythm section. Good for them: hardcore purists.

But let's get to the actual performance. What better way to open than with "Röyksopp's Night Out"? Above the cassette, a strip of red LEDs announces the song titles, and the party begins. Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland, from Tromsø, Norway, bet everything on a fascinating blend of their spacey synths and a wholly physical dimension built from percussion, partly organic (a cymbal) but mostly synthetic. Time to dance! Next, the Mekon remix of "Please Stay" (a Bacharach cover, a favourite of the duo's) plunges us into an almost techno dimension, somewhere near the best of Underworld, before the plastic melody merges seamlessly with the insistent, vocoder-whispered "Don't Go".

The first track from "The Understanding" is "What Else Is There", handled by Anneli Drecker, vocalist of Bel Canto and a fellow townswoman of Svein and Torbjørn's, five months pregnant. Her baby bump doesn't stop her from the sensual movements built around her magnetic eyes, a transparent blue almost bleached white. Not making us miss Karin Dreijer, who sings on the original, is a tough mission, but she's certainly up to it. Anneli also stays on for backing vocals on "Circuit Breaker". Svein (the dark-haired one) sings, as he will for the vast majority of the songs to follow. He also handles the percussion (and does so with great commitment and a generous outpouring of energy and fluids, believe me), while Torbjørn (the blond one) focuses mainly on the synth melodies.

An ecstatic "A Higher Place" is followed by a dedication to us, the crowd. The first declarations of love come rolling in from the floor. To a "we love you", Svein laughs and returns to the mic to answer: "We love you too". We'd already gathered as much from the first five songs, but now we have confirmation: the whole Nordic-coldness thing is just a cliché. A delicious, irresistible "Eple" arrives, with its endless nesting-doll structure. During the song's most relaxed section, the LEDs inform us: "Eple... Signifie pomme en norvégien". "Eple" means apple in Norwegian.

Soft is the following "Beautiful Day Without You", almost whispered. Then, by contrast, a driving, forceful "Remind Me", played with the help of a guitarist and Torbjørn delivering a heartfelt vocoder performance. Down at the front it's scorching hot, but it's impossible to stand still. Right after comes another instrumental, "Alpha Male" (the guitarist stays on stage), which carries us off into a galaxy somewhere between Moroder's "From Here To Eternity" era and the Daft Punk of "Discovery".

Now it's the turn of "Follow My Ruin", which brings Anneli Drecker back onto the stage. First she tiptoes in, almost imperceptibly, then she becomes absolute queen on a "Sparks" that's far more pumping than on "Melody A.M.". Despite the baby bump, the girl dances, jumps and kicks her legs in the air, even taking over the leading vocals, originally sung by Chelonis R. Jones, on "49%" (that's how the LEDs write it, with the symbol instead of the word), which, in changing genre, loses a bit of its soul edge but gains in sensuality. Everyone dances with their eyes closed, letting themselves be carried along purely by the crescendo.

We're heading towards the close, and it's time for the big singles. A masterful "Only This Moment", with the guitarist returning while Anneli sings flanked by Svein and Torbjørn. A phenomenal "Poor Leno", which starts well but ends even better, powered by a tremendous performance from Svein on percussion: he sweats, throws himself into it, urges the crowd on.

It could end there, but there's an encore. The LEDs ask: "Voulez-vous une autre chanson?". Amid the roar, Röyksopp return, and while the LEDs say thanks ("Merci beaucoup"), the pair busy themselves shaking hands with the front rows. The instrumentals "Nok E Nok" and "Istanbul Forever" see Röyksopp head straight for the dancefloor: no prisoners taken. The first is sharp, brief, intensely physical; the second long and ecstatic. "Istanbul Forever" carries a touch of the most refined Ibiza in synth tones, then that same synth paints the theme of "Poor Leno" into the air, while Svein pours his soul into the percussion. A closing flourish of endless class. The pair vanish again. "Une autre?" the LEDs ask. Of course. By now there's only one way this can end. Torbjørn introduces it: "We have to go back to the beginning". "So Easy", Bacharach, the pulse, the dancing, the beginning and the end of the journey.

So what else is there to add? That Röyksopp are great, well beyond even the rosiest expectations. With only two albums under their belt, they're already able to make their concert sound like a live "greatest hits", stringing together gem after gem of a kind many acts can only boast after many, many years in the business. And the setlist is built like a flawless, foolproof machine. We've seen far too many bands who, after just two records, leave their best-loved, most celebrated songs at home. Röyksopp, on the other hand, hold nothing back, giving themselves entirely to the crowd (who repay them with unexpected warmth), delivering everything you'd hope for and then some. We'll be waiting for them to take the big leap.

Ride the wave of great music

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