Announced: Murex – Inventio + ‘Flock of Swans Fly In V’s’

Swedish artist Murex announces her debut album, Inventio, out 25th September. The record’s arrival is marked by new single ‘Flock Of Swans Fly In V’s’, accompanied by a video, watch here.

Following her hypnotic debut single ‘Massacre’ and the screamed, trumpet-scored follow-up ‘Hardness of a Silverspoon’, Inventio unfurls as a glitching, glimmering constellation of 10 tracks, redrawing the boundaries of Murex’s own subconscious through daring harmonic modulations, glitchy electronica and frenetic orchestral sequencing. Deeply informed by storytelling and the spirit of Nordic folklore, the record charts a journey to confront body dysmorphia, control, and a fracturing sense of self – each track spinning out from the last as Murex untangles herself from that state, reaching toward creative and emotional liberation, all set to ethereal, amorphous avant-pop.

“Making this album felt like a return to my physical body,” says Murex, “while simultaneously realising that it will never encompass the totality of who I am. Each moment of finding is getting lost, and while my body stores the marks, the different versions of myself continue to evade and dissolve.”

The record was made across three years: one spent on introverted, intimate writing – “that first year felt like a secret even to me,” Murex says – and two more crafting in her Stockholm studio, where songs evolved organically across a summer of mornings spent swimming, afternoons given to production.

Inventio takes its name from Bach’s Inventions, which Murex played growing up on piano, and that Baroque spirit runs throughout: trilling polyphonic textures and melodies that amorphously drive from one track into the next, her lush vocal harmonies rising above it all. Sonic touchstones stretch from Björk – whose Vespertine was, in Murex’s words, “a companion” at her most lost – to Elizabeth Fraser and the kulning-style singing of Swedish folk and jazz artist Lena Willemark. Collaborators Pelle Westlin, Isak Hedtjärn (clarinet, flute) and Elvira Anderfjärd (cello, backing vocals) lend the record “extra arms” and free-spirited improvisation; its videos, throughout, are self-directed by Murex.

New single ‘Flock Of Swans Fly In V’s’ carries a title Murex had held onto for years, since childhood winters in Sweden. “It was the first sign of winter coming,” she recalls. “A flock lived on the meadow next to my house. I would see them leave and feel this sense of hope and beauty at how instinctive these swans were. They knew when to leave and escape the cold that they would never survive, and when to come back and embrace spring. I wish that I would understand that better.” Celestial, breathy soprano harmonies gather in the air, punctuated by plumes of koto, a traditional plucked Japanese instrument.

Murex’s world continues to reveal itself in fragments. Artists making pop music today are expected to calcify as one easily consumable version of themselves, or capitulate wildly to the capricious algorithm. Murex, one of Young’s latest signings, is already an accomplished songwriter, propelling the work of women challenging those constraints their way, and with Inventio, she spreads her wings beyond that.

“I feel like I’ve tried so many different ways of doing the creative process, and the only thing I hadn’t tried was truly letting go,” she says. “I feel very proud of it: I didn’t think that I could do something this cohesive on my own. I have new things to discover now. I hope it’s just as freeing to listen to.”

Pre-order / pre-save Inventio here.