After releasing their album The Inevitable End, Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp pledged that it would be their last full-length record, only returning with new music in other forms or when the time was right. Two years down the line, the pair have released a brand new single, ‘Never Ever,’ which features vocals from fellow Norwegian Susanne Sundfør. It’s a club-ready number that echoes late-period disco and 80’s electro-pop, harking back to the duo’s work on their album Junior.
The new single now has a brand new video, directed by the band themselves. It’s something of a bizarre delve into a cosmic disco realm, featuring awkward superimposed images, and a colourful cast of character including a robot DJ, someone who looks a bit like Bootsy Collins and a funk-filled dad in denim.
Svein Berge said of the video: “We have, in the past, tended to go for a bit of a sombre sentiment in our videos, pristine imagery with a hint of darkness […] But we wanted to turn that around this time, and make something raw, shabby and messy but predominantly light-hearted. At the core lies a reaction to the current paradigm of selfies & social media, where a flattering facade, overshadowing substance seems to be not only the accepted norm, but something to strive for. There are way too many artists that fuel this notion that one has to be both rich, delinquent, successful & sexy, all at the same time. We thought it refreshing to counter that and hence we´ve gone off on a different tangent for this video. It’s not completely unflattering, but it’s quite unflattering.” Watch below.
Röyksopp are playing a DJ set at London’s Bankside Vaults on 25th November.
