Kölsch (real name Rune Reilly Kölsch) returns to Kompakt with the third and final chapter of his autobiographical album trilogy, entitled ‘1989‘, featuring contributions from Gregor Schwellenbach with the Heritage Orchestra and Norwegian vocalist Aurora.
With new full-length ‘1989‘, the Danish native and much-revered producer and performer presents the final chapter of an elegant, anthemic album trilogy that started with an exploration of early childhood memories and influences on ‘1977‘ – the year of his birth – and continued on ‘1983’, a vibrant and picturesque journey sound-tracking the year he travelled through Europe aged six.
“With 1989, we have arrived in my early teens”, Kölsch explains, “a difficult time in my life, where I mostly just remember the greyness of it all – grey feelings, grey weather and my own grey face.”
Coinciding with the already challenging need to squeeze past the bottleneck of puberty, it was a time of seething family crisis – his parents were divorcing: “I would escape that grey world on my skateboard, listen to my Walkman as I explored the city around me. Music became my savior – the only way to overcome my family’s hard times. I found a soundtrack to my grey life, and suddenly there was color.”
It’s why you’ll find several tracks on the album being named “grey” in different languages, and they all share this distinctly “Kölsch-esque” epic melodies breaking through propulsive techno beats – a musical twist that’s particularly impressive on album hit single ‘PUSH‘. ‘1989’ also marks Kölsch’s intensified deployment of real-life orchestral sounds and the continuation of his extremely fruitful collaboration with Gregor Schwellenbach: after contributing to predecessor album ‘1983’, the Kompakt affiliate, composer and multi- instrumentalist now conducts the Heritage Orchestra for tracks ‘Khairo‘, ‘Liath‘ (featuring a violin solo by Kate Robinson) and ‘Serji‘, the latter of which Schwellenbach co-wrote and co-produced. The 24-person Heritage Orchestra consists of violins, violas, cellos and double basses, while ‘In Bottles‘ features vocals written and performed by Aurora Aksnes.
Listen to ‘In Bottles feat. Aurora‘ below!
Tracklist
01. A1. 1989
02. A2. Serij
03. A3. Grå
04. A4. In Bottles
05. B1. Grey
06. B2. Grau
07. B3. PUSH
08. C1. Gris
09. C2. 14
10. C3. Khairo
11. D1. YKPI
12. D2. Liath
13. D3. Goodbye
Tour Dates
Sep 24 Tokyo World Festival, Bristol, United Kingdom
Sep 29 The Rainbow Venues, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Sep 29 Vaults Cardiff, United Kingdom
Sep 30 Circus 15th Birthday, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Oct 02 Circoloco / DC10, Ibiza, Spain
Oct 20 Awakenings ADE Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oct 21 ADE Audio Obscura x Spectrum Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kölsch Album Tour
Oct 27 Miami, USA Heart
Oct 28 Montreal, Canada La Bacchanale
Oct 31 San Francisco, USA Audio
Nov 3 Cordoba, Argentina BNP Club
Nov 4 Valinhos, S.P, Brasil Laroc – Sunset Club
Nov 5 Buenos Aires, Argentina Oasis
Nov 9 London, UK Fabric (Live Show)
Nov 10 Paris, France Faust
Nov 11 Berlin, Germany Panoramabar
Nov 16 Dublin, Ireland District 8
Nov 17 Cologne, Germany Gewölbe
Nov 18 Hasselt, Belgium Labyrinth
Nov 24 Milan, Italy Volt
Nov 26 Glasgow, UK Sub Club
Dec 8 Melbourne, Australia Forum Theatre (Live show)
Dec 9 Sydney, Australia Greenwood (Live show)
Dec 15 New York, USA TBA
Dec 16 Los Angeles, USA Sound
Purchase ‘1989‘ here!
