Kölsch

Rune Reilly Kølsch, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, produces house and techno under multiple aliases, one of which is Kölsch. After earlier projects such as Artificial Funk and Enur, whose global hit “Calabria 2007” reworked a prior instrumental, he concentrated on the Kölsch name throughout the 2010s. During that period he supplied numerous volumes to Kompakt’s Speicher series and issued a sequence of reflective, travel-inspired albums that opened with 1977 in 2013. Later he established his own Ipso imprint, collaborated with Michael Mayer, Tiga and Sasha, and delivered a continuous Fabric mix of original tracks in 2019. The opulently scored Now Here No Where marked his return to Kompakt in 2020.

Active since the mid-’90s, Kølsch has run several labels and repeatedly joined forces with his brother Johannes Torpe on ventures including Artificial Funk, Fashion Victims and Heavy Rock. His biggest success was the saxophone-driven “Calabria,” first issued in 2003 under the name Rune; popular in Ibiza clubs, it was reworked with lyrics by Danish dancehall singer Natasja Saad, credited to Enur, and topped Billboard’s U.S. club chart. After Kompakt’s Michael Mayer heard Kølsch’s work as Ink & Needle, the Cologne label signed him, releasing many of his less commercial though still accessible recordings. In 2010 Kölsch delivered the Speicher 68 12″, led by the exuberant and slightly eccentric “Loreley.” Additional Speicher material and an FM X single followed in 2011 and 2012, before the album 1977 appeared on Kompakt in June 2013.

Further Speicher releases continued through 2015, the year he issued the proper successor 1983, featuring strings by Gregor Schwellenbach and a vocal from Tomas Høffding of WhoMadeWho. In 2016 Kølsch launched Ipso with “Dogma 1 & Dogma 2,” a collaboration with Mayer. Schwellenbach returned for the third album 1989, co-producing one track and conducting orchestral arrangements performed by the Heritage Orchestra; Kompakt released it in September 2017. The following year Kølsch remixed WhoMadeWho’s “Dynasty” and Nic Fanciulli and Damon Albarn’s “Saying,” collaborated with Tiga on “HAL,” and released Speicher 106. “The Lights,” a joint effort with Sasha, came out on Ipso in 2019, followed by Fabric Presents Kölsch, a continuously mixed collection of exclusive tracks named after flight numbers from his travels. His fourth album for Kompakt, Now Here No Where, arrived in 2020 with further expansive arrangements by Schwellenbach and guest vocals from Ghostly International-signed act Beacon.