Murex’s “Mothers Bells” is a glitchy, Bach-inspired reminder of home

Arriving 25 September via Young Recordings, Murex’s first full-length LP came from her undeniable urge to create. “The music just came out in some sort of desperation,” she tells BEST FIT. “Creating, whether it's the visual side or the musical side, is in order for me to understand what I'm going through and what I'm feeling and thinking.” The album, she adds, finally takes it seriously: “It felt necessary to do it justice, almost for myself.” Murex grew up in the north of Sweden, near the tip of the Bothnian Bay, surrounded by classical music. Her grandfather played the organ in church; her relatives sang in the choir; she followed. “I got to know my voice when I sang in choir and I kind of found my musical ear that way.” At home, she learned piano, and developed a deep fixation with Bach’s Inventions. Specifically the canon of the melodies, each one folding into and overtaking the next. “Playing that was so soothing for my brain,” she says. You can hear said structural influence through everything Murex makes. Layered, textured, and difficult to listen to, but deeply complementary and satisfying. “Mothers Bells” was the last song Murex wrote for Inventio. Explaining that the reco...