I thought it might be good to collect some of the thoughts we have about the album and post them here to spare you all the embarrassment and bother of overlooking an interview here or there and missing out on some of the chunkier nuggets of info.
So here they are.
Molok is a concept album that follows a story that goes like this.
A man, having suffered a loss of illusion wants to turn to religion but will only do so if he is sure that God exists. In our minds this takes page in Paris in the 20s. Having studied the religions of the world he decides that God seems to have disappeared and left his followers worshipping stone. From Stonehenge to St. Peters to the Easter island statues he sees only stone and no content.
If God is indeed dead as the German philosopher and moustache enthusiast said, the only other alternative is that the universe is a mechanical entity that follows strict scientific rules. The consequence of this is that humans are just complicated chemical reactions taking place in a meaningless void and the foundations of human morals and our belief in our place in the universe is based on a false assumption.
If the universe is mechanistic, every event is the result of a past event and the cause of the next. With enough information it would be possible to build a machine that could simulate the whole thing from its creation to its end. Our guy decides to build such a machine because this would let him see if God is in there somewhere and he should also be able to learn something about he/its mind.
He names the machine Molok after a biblical demon into whose jaws children were sacrificed. This because his machine crunches something too; numbers.
By an astronomical stroke of luck (or the hand of God, who knows?) He gets the numbers right and the machine works! He places it in the stone age tomb at newgrange to set it up in complete darkness as Molok does not seem to work in the light. As the machine calculates away it undergoes its own evolution as it experiences the awakening of the mind of man and the first religions. In the song Molok rising we had help from archaeologist Gjermund Kolltveit to reproduce the earliest songs from rituals as they actually may have been. We do our homework darlings!
According to quantum physics an electron is in many probable places at once until the actual moment its position is measured. At that point it “chooses” to be in point a or point b. When the machine Molok completes its calculation it measures the position of all electrons in the universe in one instant. This happens on solstice day at the exact moment when the sunlight enters the tomb at newgrange as the stone age master builders intended. Once this measurement is made time freezes and the universe is destroyed.
And that is our little story this time.
The album is about the conflict between the rational and the emotional mind or as you might say, between the brain and the heart.
The idea that someone trying to scientifically study and produce evidence for an object of the heart and destroys everything, and by that I mean everything, is one of the main points made but I am sure you all see lots of other interpretations of the thing already.
As for the sound at the end of the album that actually can, in real life, destroy the universe, well in our opinion it adds a little spice to the listening experience.
Disclaimer, Molok is not about the existence or non existence of God. That answer is not something a rock group can or should ever claim to give. Au contraire, the album shows, or tries to, that once you go deep enough in both scientific or religious ideas, they start to resemble each other up to the point where they are difficult to separate.
We made it with our hearts and hope you listen with yours.
Warning: it takes a while to get into so as usual, be prepared to be bored on the first two or three listens before the thing opens up and hopefully gives you great pleasure. We only found out about the Ginsberg poem “Molok”, late in the project and though he uses Molok as a name for modern capitalist society, maybe, it is well worth reading as a very moving poem. So well done Allen!
If you see the destroying the universe thing as a gimmick, then I want to emphasise that it is not. It is an integral part of the album as a generator of thought in the listener. It may have been catchy for tabloid media because of course it would be, but that was never an intention, just a side effect. My dream was to make my small local newspaper write the article that Homer Simpson once had “Local man ruins everything” and that is yet to happen. If it does I’ll let you all know.
Anyway back to packing stuff for the tour as we are leaving for Poland tomorrow. Hope to meet and greet as many of you as possible as you will always remain our favourite people. Brothers and sisters if you know what I mean.
Love
Gazpacho (destroyers of the universe/Norwegian tourists in your country next week)