Motorpsycho: En Konsert For Folk Flest

No dancing around the maypole in this celebration of ‘folk’

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Following their monumental 2012 concept LP The Death Defying Unicorn, Motorpsycho and Storlokken were asked to create a work of the same magnitude for Trondheim’s biggest cultural fest.

Under the theme of ‘folk’ – not tales of Taper Tom or Smorbukk, but folk as a national condition – they took three ideas: write for a choir, write in Norwegian (their first ever attempt), and use the recently restored Cathedral organ as the central instrument. This 70-minute whopper is the result – a mighty triple-gatefold package to get your head round. Politically a little lost in translation, the work flows from sonorous, organ-heavy textures and toccatas to fully integrated rock songs, with the choir providing Ligeti-like atmosphere or a Bach-style melody. Deciphering lyrics is hard as a compound language has been created – Magma fans may appreciate both the argot and the drama of the work, particularly on cyclic jazz odyssey Kebabels Tårn. Persevere and it does work, though. Imens, Bed Bipolarsirkelen frames Storlokken as the Rick Wakeman of our generation, and on Mammonumamikoma and Grandiosa, the MP machine will turn you on.

Jo Kendall

Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer with 23 years in music magazines since joining Kerrang! as office manager in 1999. But before that Jo had 10 years as a London-based gig promoter and DJ, also working in various vintage record shops and for the UK arm of the Sub Pop label as a warehouse and press assistant. Jo's had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson's favourite flute (!), asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit, and invented several ridiculous editorial ideas such as the regular celebrity cooking column for Prog, Supper's Ready. After being Deputy Editor for Prog for five years and Managing Editor of Classic Rock for three, Jo is now Associate Editor of Prog, where she's been since its inception in 2009, and a regular contributor to Classic Rock. She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London, hoping to inspire the next gen of rock, metal, prog and indie creators and appreciators.