KÖLSCH

Kölsch is Danish DJ and producer Rune Reilly Kölsch, whose music sits between house and techno. Under names including Rune RK, he explored different sides of electronic music before Kölsch became his defining artist name.

His musical beginnings were on guitar and drums; as a teenager, he DJed at a youth club and started building samples on an Amiga 500. In 2000, he formed the producer duo Artificial Funk with his half-brother Johannes Torpe, later reaching the UK Top 40. A turning point came when Michael Mayer signed him to Kompakt Records, where Kölsch released three albums between 2013 and 2017, drawing on his childhood.

His first major response came with 2003’s “Calabria”, an instrumental house track with an instantly recognisable synthetic saxophone riff. It earned him a Danish Music Award in 2004, while the riff lived on through later reworks and samples. “Grey” also became a minor hit in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2016; a year later, he performed on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Beyond his own work, he has collaborated with London Grammar, Tiga and Michael Mayer, among others. His releases now extend to the 2023 album “I Talk to Water” and new work from 2025. On stage, a catalogue built over many years meets a DJ rooted as firmly in house as in techno.