Death Defying Unicorn started out as a question from Midt Norsk Jazzforum to Staale Storloekken in the fall of 2009: "did he think it was possible to write or organize a concert with Motorpsycho and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra at the Molde International Jazzfestival in the summer of 2010?" Having known Staale for a long time - though never actually having played with him - Motorpsycho thought it a splendid idea and agreed to do "something". Having discussed the project, both Staale and the band soon thought it would be best if the music was new and not just rearrangements of old MP material, so demos changed hands and the thing started to take shape and grew and mutated until it was recognized that it would really benefit the music if there were strings. At that point, both master-fiddler Ola Kvernberg as well as a string octet from Trondheims Solistene became involved. There were really no limits put on the music when it was being composed, and every style from avant-garde classical, to free(-ish) jazz to hard as well as soft rock was tried and tested to see what kinds of flavors would suit the players and the project. By summer 2010, the work was in a playable, if unrefined, instrumental and perhaps overtly wanna-be jazzy state. The almost 2hr version thus played at Molde Jazz festival that summer felt unfinished and half-baked to its creators, and as summer grew into fall once more, Staale and MP decided they needed to bring this project to some kind of conclusion. The logical next step was to finish writing it, and as more demos changed hands, Kaare Chr Vestrheim - who'd produced MP's last studio album Heavy Metal Fruit - came on board as co-conspirator and bullshit filter. It was decided to try to shape this huge lump of music into some kind of coherent form and that perhaps giving it some kind of story would be a good way of organizing the various musical works. That winter it grew into shape, and by the time primary recording started at the Propeller Music Division studio in Oslo in April 2010, it had a libretto as well as a logical musical development. The ambition was to try to refine it, and get it to work within the framework of a good old-fashioned double LP - four sides, 20 mins long each. Hell, if it worked for The Who... The Death Defying Unicorn is not really a "rock opera" as such, although the words can be read as a story of sorts. It's not a jazz record or a classical record or a rock record, but not a "crossover" record either (whatever that might mean this month!). Some people have called it "prog" and perhaps that is the best description? Though lumping it in with 70s overblown musical circle jerks sells it short, there isn't much in the current musical climate that sounds or feels like this, and both Staale and MP are resigned to having it dismissed as such by virtually everyone. That's the simplest and most natural way to treat it... All that is asked of you is that your approach it with an open mind and as big a set of ears as you can: it's not just bold and big, it's kinda beautiful too. And funny. And preposterously beyond anything MP ever did before - that's for sure! Truly progressive then - at least to them. And yeah - Staale is the one that drew the shortest straw!