Royksopp were officially formed in 1998 but their origins go back to the early 1990’s when Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge were schoolmates in their hometown of Tromso, in Norway, experimenting with electronic instruments. The duo went their separate ways but years later they met again in Bergen, and eventually formed Royksopp, working with other Norwegian musicians such as Frost, Kings of Convenience’s guitarist/singer Erlend Oye, Those Norwegians and Drum Island. The word ‘royksopp’ is Norwegian for the puffball mushroom, literally, "smoke mushroom".

Royksopp’s first singles were released by local independent label Tellé, and their debut album ”Melody A.M.”, on UK label Wall of Sound. Many tracks from the album have been used in commercials or as background music on TV, helping to boost their popularity. For example, an infographic styled video by French company H5 for the track "Remind Me" won the 2002 MTV Europe Music Award for “Best Music Video” (in the same event, Royksopp also received nominations for 3 other categories, "Best Nordic Act", "Best New Artist" and "Best Dance Act"), and the song "Eple" (‘apple’ in Norwegian) was licensed by Apple for use as the welcome music to the company’s Mac OS X Panther operating system, playing the first time a user booted a new Mac. Royksopp’s first single "So Easy", originally released on the Telle label became popular in the UK after it was used in a T-Mobile advert, and was susequently re-released in the UK. ”Melody A.M.” made number 1 on the Norwegian Album chart, and number 9 in the UK Album chart.

Royksopp’s second studio album, “The Understanding”, was released in July 2005, with singles such as "Follow My Ruin" included on the soundtrack of FIFA 06, (one of EA Sports' long running football video game franchises). The single "What Else Is There?" was also used in an O2 television advert in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2008. “The Understanding” topped the Norwegian Album chart, made number 7 in Sweden, number 13 in the UK, and broke into the Top 50 in the Album charts of various other European countries, including Holland, France, Finland and Germany

In 2006, Royksopp released a 9 track live album, called "Royksopp's Night Out", containing a new dance version of their single "Sparks", and a reinterpretation of “Go with the Flow” (originally by Queens of the Stone Age). Royksopp also compiled their favourite tracks by other artists for the “Back to Mine” series, released in April 2007, containing their own track "Meatball" (released under the pseudonym ‘Emmanuel Splice’), which is a remix version of Mike Oldfield's "North Star/Platinum Finale" (from the album "Platinum"). “Back To Mine” made number 13 in the UK, and number 24 in Norway.