Once openers, Lemaitre are now ready to own the spotlight all on their own.
Norwegian indie electronic duo Lemaitre first came to Madison in 2014 to open for Porter Robinson’s 2014 Worlds tour.
Two years later, Oslo natives Ulrik Denizou Lund and Ketil Jansen are coming back to Madtown, only this time as the main acts for their first American headliner tour.
The duo appropriately named themselves after Belgian physicist Georges Lemaitre, who first proposed the Big Bang Theory. Just like the universe keeps expanding, Lemaitre continues to expand their musical talents and experiment with new sounds.
With seven EPs released, but no full-fledged album, Lund said they are looking to create a studio album sometime soon.
“We haven’t had the time to sit down and work for a long time,” Lund said. “It will probably come when we have something that were happy with.”
Currently based in Los Angeles, the two practically live in the studio. While some artists have to make their way to the studio, Jansen said a typical work day involves waking up, having a cup of coffee and then messing around on the computer until something “hopefully sounds good.”
Unlike most upbeat electronic music, Lemaitre likes to incorporate other feelings other than joy into their music. Melancholy, Lund said, is ever-present in the duo’s lyrics and harmonic content.
“Sad music can sound very pretty and sound very happy depending on context, mood, production or instrumentation,” Jansen said. “Those songs do sound very upbeat, but they also tend to have more melancholic meaning behind the lyrics.”
Even though the two come together to create one harmonious song, that’s not to say that they always agree on their preferred sounds. While they may have bonded over their mutual love for The Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx, Lund is more into hip hop and R&B while Jansen has an ear for drum-and-bass and pop songs.
“We can agree where the sound can go because it can go in a lot of directions with different sounding songs and tempos,” Lund said. “We want to keep it kind of open — it’s pretty unlimited.”
Since the music changes all the time, Lund said they take the change as it comes. They typically don’t plan on making a track beforehand or go into the studio with an idea in mind.
Instead, Lund said they’re influenced by whatever they’re listening to, or the moment itself.
As the duo prepares to make their way to Madison, they’re excited to show the crowd a whole new audio-visual experience with some happy moments, and possible some sad. Overall, Jansen said the crowd should be prepared for an emotional journey.
“We put a lot of effort into making it a cool experience, and it’s going to be cool and big,” Lund said.
Lemaitre will be performing at Majestic Theater Friday at 7 p.m. Get ready with some of their tunes below.
