Starting off the week with a session recorded only hours ago by Index For Working Musik for Marc Riley at BBC 6 Music.
A blurb from Still Listening published in January 2023.
Index For Working Musik was born in late 2019, when Max Oscarnold and Nathalia Bruno discovered a collection of photocopies in a urine-alley in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. Among the documents was an essay on early Christian hermits, titled Men Possessed by God, and a selection of both sacred and profane imagery. This event inspired Max and Nathalia to pursue a new venture, and once they had returned to London and set up an 8-track studio in a basement in E8, their project gained momentum. Soon, they were joined by drummer Bobby Voltaire, double bass player E. Smith and guitarist J. Loftus, forming an unexpected collective.
The Plague Years (i.e. Lockdown) provided an opportunity for Index For Working Musik to hone their craft. With limited light and no outside presence, the group was able to stretch the recording process to boundaryless days in architectural isolation. This allowed them to adopt a ‘first thought, best thought’ approach when it came to making free guitar music. Together, the members of Index For Working Musik created a unique style that is both creative and evocative.
Quote the band from the interview:
“The album was recorded when the lockdown was lifted and we were able to be in the same room as each other again. As a result, one can hear that excitement and freedom throughout various tracks and it allowed for an atmosphere without barriers due to the fact that we had all been cooped up for so long and now were free to collaborate. It allowed some of us to dedicate all the time one needed to one thing, a rare gift in a very unfocused world. So Lockdown was in a way a beautiful thing for us, no outside distractions, no obligations. we would spend day and night in our basement flat studio determined to make the record work, experimenting, discovering together what it was we felt needed to be done.”
Now that you’re caught up on Index For Working Musik, the only thing left for you to do is Press Play and dive in for the next fifteen or so minutes.
