Lots of newer news

"I just want to sream...hello..." because i am back from a lovely vacation at the sea -- oh boy, I cannot remember the last time I have been that happy -- and it sure is about time I give MotorpsychoNews an update with lots of newer news!

Firstly, most importantly, just as expected, two new concert-dates have emerged in the meantime! The respective venues have confirmed Motorpsycho shows for October 20 in Bodø @ Sinus as well as for October 28 in Bergen @ the relatively tiny Kvarteret. The confirmed dates now make a neat list with no less than six confirmed Norwegian concerts, that's already one show more than the entire Norwegian leg of the spring tour did encompass! If you look at the tour-schedule it's fairly easy to fill up the gaps between confirmed concerts with potential supplementary dates: assuming they won't play the venues again they have already played in the spring (except for Rockefeller obviously) concerts in Skien, Kristianssand & Tromsø seem very likely, though the band will need an off-day at one point, from my own observation during the last years, seven concerts is the most they have played in a row without a day rest, which is still a very impressive number!


Anywho, as the baron would say, the question of the moment is: will European-continental dates emerge soon or will this tour be exclusive to Norway only? The total lack of concert confirmations- & rumours regarding European shows makes every serious psychonaut living south of Norway worry if he or she will be able to be part of the experience in the fall again -- some of us already semi-plan a trip to Norway due to missing dates down here! It's too early though to give up hope, imo, because given the expected timeframe of potential dates outside of Norway, which would be the first half-, maybe middle of November, we still got one, maybe even two more weeks for concert dates to surface; typically dates are being confirmed at least two months ahead of the actual event. It's a slight chance I refuse to let go, positive thinking on this wonderful day you might call it, but really, would it be too much to ask if they simply reversed the spring-tour country-ratio: tour Norway extensively, fair enough!, and add a handful of complementary European dates? Generally both scenarios -- a Norway-only tour & an extensive Norwegian intinerary with additional European dates -- seem likely, compare from the band's history e.g. 1998, 1999 & 2000 for exclusive Norwegian fall tours, 1997 & 2002 for comprehensive European fall tours.

Speculation aside, here is the updated tour schedule for now! Newly confirmed or rumoured dates will be added instantly; please find the link in the sidebar also!


In other news, psychonauts residing in or near Trondheim were treated to an extraordinary event yesterday: the Trondheim Jazzfestival hosted an Improv-Gig at Blæst by Motorpsycho-collaborator, vibraphonist & sound-artist Øyvind Brandtsegg yesterday (August 30, 2006) supported by a small ensemble of musicians among them Bent & Snah! Go to the festival's event page to see the complete line-up. Here's a translation of the announcement featured on that site:

"Ø. B. has got a 'cannon team' of Norwegian musicians for this evening! In order to attain the perfect gunpowder mixture he has selected musicians who each have their own unique view on improvisation and energy. Newly written material gets mixed with 'standards' who are by no means taken from the traditional jazz repertoir.

The energy of rock & the playfulness of jazz makes the boundaries for compositional momentums taken from contemporary music [sic!]. Brandtsegg has an art scholarship at the University in Trondheim, and is exploring the use of compositional techniques when improvising. His live-sampler 'ImproSculpt', when it was released, established a new standard for level and complexity for electronic instruments.

This work has been commisioned with support from the Norwegian culture-council (Norsk Kulturråd)."

If you attended this gig on wednesday & made a recording, took some notes or just want to share some observations, i.e. something that sort of resembles a setlist, e-mail me, information of all sorts is always welcome!



Finally, Motorpsycho's mini-festival tour in August spawned yet another exiting broadcast in addition to two songs from Haldern on the radio & the complete Øya-performance as webcast & partial radio broadcast. Last weekend, late at night, we got a wonderful portion of Motorpsycho's show at Haldern Festival (check the link for a backstage message by the band) on TV! Rockpalast, the infamous music program on German TV WDR, aired "Manmower"/"Kill devil hills"/"Devil dog"! The footage is beyond beautiful, especially "Manmower" is very moving. Expect a fan-made DVD of this recording to be making the rounds very soon. The pictures in this article were taken from this very footage, btw.

Speaking of pictures, I also want to urge you to check out the small gallery here, some pretty cool quality shots from Øya, though the pictures from the respective festivals certainly do look alike, thanks to Snah wearing his Joe-tee, lol. :-)


Well well well, those news make for a nice start to the second part of Motorpsycho's "Black hole/Blank canvas"-era, so here's to an eventful autumn!


Sources: Thanks to the Unoff. Also thanks to the nice folks at the phorum for keeping track of tour dates: TGBD, Laika & particularly Jonne for the potential additional dates, thanks to otherdemon for the Øya-gallery link. Many thanks to Rolf for the Jazzfestival translation. Thanks to Funki for recording Haldern from TV. And last but not least to Susann for being there & the loveliest holiday there could be...