Robyn Shares a Poignant Video And Essay About Late Collaborator Christian Falk

Robyn has just released a video and penned an essay in memory of her longtime friend and collaborator Christian Falk, who passed away from cancer last summer at the age of 52. Falk, born in 1962, was an influential Swedish producer, DJ, songwriter, and instrumentalist. He first enlisted Robyn for a guest vocal on his 1999 song "Remember," and they worked together again on his 2006 hit "Dream On."

Robyn and Falk were two thirds of the group Robyn & La Batalle Magique along with keyboardist Markus Jägerstedt—this August they released their debut EP, Love Is Free, which mixed Robyn's sultry vocals with crisp house textures.

In the video, which premiered on Yours Truly, Robyn describes how a meeting with Falk sparked her inspiration to make new songs—when they joined up with Jägerstedt, Bagatelle Magique was born. "This record, it's really pieced together, and that comes from Christian's way of thinking about music," explains Robyn.We see footage of the three of them in the studio, creating dance music on keyboards and racks of modular synths.

"Losing him, there's nothing good about it," she added in the essay that accompanies the video. "Sometimes you really want to find reasons. You want to say that there's a reason for everything. I don't think that there's any reason at all in the world why—when someone gets sick like that and they go through so much pain, and everyone around them goes through so much pain."

She went on to describe the poignant experience of working on music with someone suffering from a terminal illness:

"When we made this music, even when we knew Christian was gonna die, he was super in love with his life," she writes. "It was like he made up his mind. Like, 'I'm not gonna try to make it into something it's not. I'm just gonna mix. I'm just gonna make this collage and go for it this time.' And I think that's what was so inspiring to us."

Stream the video below, and read her full statement here.