Begynnelser

This music was written for a project Motorpsycho was invited to be a part of by Trondelag Teater in 2015. It eventually ended up as the play Begynnelser ("Beginnings"); directed, designed and dramatized by the independent theatre group de Utvalgte based on a new text written by Norwegian author Carl Frode Tiller. It was produced and performed at Trondelag Teater in Trondheim with a cast drawn mainly from their ensemble. Motorpsycho played live at every performance with a line-up that included "utility psychos" Pål Brekkås or Tos Nieuwenhuizen. The play ran for six weeks in September and October of 2016. Not all of this music was eventually used in the play. The band also wrote a lot more during preparations and rehearsals. It was a long process and most of the music was tweaked in a big way to fit the flow and feel of the play. It was also played live every night, so what you would have heard during the performances would in most instances have sounded very different from this album. But these initial recordings have a certain unity of intent, as well as a sound and a definitive vibe to them that the band feels perhaps represents their input into the project the best. It is what they feel works best as a pure listening experience. The music is not sequenced in the order it was used in the play, and a lot of the music that eventually was played in the performances is missing from this album, so this is perhaps best described as "a version of what it might have been", more than a document of what the soundtrack eventually ended up becoming. One presumes this also probably would explain the title of the album. The titles of the various tracks reflect the band's process. The song names are in many cases inner-band shorthand for associations they gave the composers as they were written, and all of them are additionally graced with a place name taken from the area of Norway that both Hans Magnus Ryan and Bent Sæther of Motorpsycho grew up, and where the play is set. The included DVD contains a documentary and a complete two hour filmed performance of the play - with English subtitles; DVD is PAL format, region free. So all-in-all, you get a lot of new, original Motorpsycho music.