BEGYNNELSER

In 2016, Motorpsycho was approached by playwright Carl Frode to help create music for his contemporary play known as Begynnelser. With every release under Motorpsycho's belt they will try something completely new, and for this soundtrack the band would go more ambient and classical to invoke a mysterious mood, right for this darker play.

This is not a long album, consisting of 13 songs, each around a minute through 4 minutes worth of music, sometimes going to 6 and 7 minutes worth, but still keeping things relatively small. I think what works for this album is the fact the band tried to make this a very different album from what they normally make. They've tried a ton of genres in the past, but nothing quite like this, combining dungeon synth sounds, modern classicism, ambience, and folk to create this very strange, atmospheric, and almost haunting at times record.

I think the main issue I have with this album is that I never really quite get a sense of engagement from the music to my ears. The band obviously wanted to do something different, and probably hearing it in the actual play it was made for might make me change my mind, but I just feel like this is really empty, dry, and without really anything going for it other than neat and surreal ambient music. I also just feel it is essentially just background music, and obviously scores are meant to be the background noise for something, whether it be a play, movie, video game, or audiobook, but even then I feel like this doesn't hold much emotion to it for me to really be engaged in listening to it. It is one of the only Motorpsycho releases I call a disappointment.

A unique, but ultimately underwhelming album. I do appreciate the band for trying new things, but you gotta make those new elements you are exploring to engage the listener, no matter the context. There are worse albums out there, and this certainly isn't one of them, but what is here is quite lackluster in comparison to a ton of other Motorpsycho releases.