A rare version of Röyskopp’s 2001 ‘Melody A.M.‘ featuring artwork designed by Banksy has sold for £3,720 at auction. Find all the details below.
The edition of the Norwegian duo’s seminal debut album dates back to 2002, and they sent Banksy 100 blank record sleeves to customise. Banksy then spray-painted the sleeves in green using a bespoke stencil.
Now, one of the copies has sold through Wessex Auction Rooms to a local street-art collector.
The collector initially missed the lot, but immediately contacted the auction house afterwards with an offer of £3,000, before eventually securing the record for £3,720, per BBC News.
Auctioneer and vinyl expert Martin Hughes told BBC News that the high price was driven by Banksy’s artwork, rather than the condition of the record, which had “definitely been played”, or even the popularity of Röyksopp.
“As much as Royksopp were a great band,” he said, “you’re not going to be spending thousands on one of their albums.”
Another version of the album with a Banksy-drawn cover sold for $10,465.10 (£8,477.25) on Discogs in 2019, becoming one of the most expensive vinyl records sold in history.
At the time of its release, NME gave ‘Melody A.M.’ four stars, in a review that read: “The music is a spectral combination of bleepy 80s synths, lightly crunching backbeats and dreamy vocals; the mood is pure post-clubbing afterglow, in bed with your loved one, in some snowbound Ikea log cabin. Sounds nice? It is.
“‘In Space’ sprinkles rippling harps over sighing, sampled strings, ‘Royksopp’s Night Out’ suggests a few hours spent under the Northern Lights rather than a mirrorball (or indeed table), the swaying sample in ‘So Easy’ irresistibly evokes images of the cuddly monsters from ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ and ‘Poor Leno’ is eerie, strangely homoerotic, disco.”
Röyksopp have remained active in recent years, and Svein Berge of the duo talked to NME in 2023 about their sound. “We hail from the club scene. The UK and mainland Europe was very influential on us in our teens – with the whole rave thing and so on; hence, the Ibiza warmth that one can detect. But also, we unintentionally have those vast soundscapes that come from the Nordic fjords and all the clichés. For whatever reason, we always return to that. We like that ambiguity in music where you’re being almost manipulated to feel happy and sad at the same time.”
In other Banksy news, in April he confirmed that, as was widely believed, he was behind a new London statue of a man blinded by a flag. Before that, last September, Banksy was revealed to be behind a protest artwork on the the Royal Courts Of Justice in London, depicting a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-spattered placard while a judge, in a wig and gown, looms over him holding a gavel.
It was believed to be a commentary on the arrest of hundreds of people for holding up placards supporting Palestine Action at protests. Later, after the artwork was removed, Kneecap said it had hit the “fucking nail on the head”.
Meanwhile, a builder from London hit out at rumours that he was Banksy, telling those making the claims to “grow up and get a life”. The builder in question, George Georgiou, had been mistaken for Banksy ever since he was seen installing Perspex around an artwork in Finsbury Park in 2024, which he said he had done as a favour to his sons, who owned the building.
In other news, the Banksy-designed stab-proof vest that Stormzy wore at Glastonbury has gone on display at London’s new V&A East as part of a new, landmark exhibition about Black British music.