Murex – Inventio

Murex's Inventio is the Swedish artist's 10-track debut for Young, a record shaped over three years in Sweden and built from glitchy electronics, frenetic orchestral sequencing and ethereal avant-pop. Named after Bach's Inventions, which Murex played on piano growing up, it brings a distinctly Baroque thread into contemporary electronic pop through trilling polyphony and tightly woven vocal harmonies.

The album's strongest story is how personal and structural ideas meet in the music. Deeply informed by Nordic folklore, Inventio moves through themes of body dysmorphia, control and fractured identity, while reaching toward creative and emotional freedom. Murex also deliberately shifts attention away from her physical self, framing the work as a protest against being reduced to a single consumable image and as a tribute to the many versions that make up one person.

Sonic touchstones in the source material include Björk, Elizabeth Fraser and the kulning tradition associated with Lena Willemark, but the record's own character comes through in its intricate melodic interplay and glimmering, unsettled atmosphere. Contributors Pelle Westlin, Isak Hedtjärn and Elvira Anderfjärd helped expand the sessions, and Murex directed every accompanying video herself, giving Inventio a fully authored visual world as well as a distinctive musical one.