Grey — Kölsch

“Grey” by Kölsch is a short, melodic club track that first appeared on a Kompakt 12-inch in September 2016. A year later the title came back, on an album whose tracklist includes “Grey”, “Grau”, “Grå” and “Gris” — the same colour in several languages, for a grey period of his life.

Kölsch and Kompakt

Kölsch is Rune Reilly Kölsch, a Copenhagen producer born on 9 February 1977. Before this name he had a hit as Rune with “Calabria” in 2003. As Kölsch he found a home at Kompakt, the Cologne label: his 12-inches on its Kompakt Extra imprint include “Loreley”, “Opa”, “DerDieDas” and “Cassiopeia” with Gregor Schwellenbach. His albums 1977 (2013) and 1983 (2015) began an autobiographical trilogy, and in 2016 he started his own imprint, IPSO.

Speicher 93

“Grey” came out in September 2016 as the A-side of Speicher 93 (KOM EX 93), part of Kompakt Extra’s Speicher series of 12-inches. The label described it as “brass-infused” and paired it with “Kir”, billed as a “jacking club monster”. Kompakt presented both tracks as heartfelt, catchy melodies over a driving beat. At 4:53, “Grey” is short by club standards: a melody-first record rather than a long DJ tool.

The grey years: 1989

1989, released by Kompakt on 22 September 2017, closed the trilogy that began with 1977 (early childhood) and 1983 (travelling through Europe at six). This time the subject was a difficult adolescence. Kölsch spoke of remembering “the greyness of it all”, and the album carries it in its titles, with “Grey” as track five. He described music as the way out: “I found a soundtrack to my grey life, and suddenly there was color.” He conducted the Heritage Orchestra on three tracks, worked again with Gregor Schwellenbach, and brought in Aurora to sing on “In Bottles”.

In the mix

“Grey” suits the moment a set turns emotional: bright brass, a hummable line and a driving beat, all in under five minutes. Read the full Kölsch profile, and keep digging with Booka Shade’s “In White Rooms”.