Sometime around 2013, a new kind of music started appearing on SoundCloud and YouTube. Nobody had a name for it, but nobody needed one. It just felt like summer.

And it all began in a small bedroom in rainy Scotland.

The story starts with a student in his early 20s from Bergen, Norway, who was studying business at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. But it was just a backup plan, as he was spending most of his energy on something he didn’t know would soon take the world by storm.

He had come across music by a Swedish producer named Avicii, and soon after decided to get his hands on Logic Studio and a MIDI keyboard to imitate his sound.

Later, he stumbled upon a fellow Norwegian artist named Finnebassen. In contrast to the Swede’s energetic and upbeat music, his tracks were much slower and more calm. The student then lowered the tempo on his own productions and borrowed his signature funky basslines.

https://soundcloud.com/finnebassen/bella-original-mix

The Scottish weather closely resembled his hometown: grey and rainy. As he was producing music instead of studying, he often daydreamed about being somewhere totally different: warm summer days, beautiful sunsets, people gathering together on a beach.

He wasn't alone. Across SoundCloud, a loose constellation of producers were all arriving at the same feeling from different directions: Oliver Nelson in Sweden, Klingande from France, Thomas Jack in Australia, Nora En Pure in Switzerland, and many more.

None of them knew they were building something together. They were just making music that felt warm, and millions enjoyed, including the Bergen student who directly took inspiration from them (The Lyon Playlist).

https://soundcloud.com/noraenpure/nora-en-pure-come-with-me-ep?in=lyon0202/sets/the-lyon-playlist/

https://soundcloud.com/pizzlemynizzle/justin-timberlake-suit-tie-oliver-nelson-remix

https://soundcloud.com/wankelmut/wankelmut-one-day-club-mix

These producers quietly set the groundwork for what we now know as “tropical house”, which would quickly become the Norwegian’s signature genre.

The student’s name is Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, better known to the world as Kygo.