Music as Math is a fairly new, (and very spread out) band that just released a fascinating debut EP, I Think I May Have Had a Religious Experience. Music as Math began in a Chicago loft shared by Chris Ploeg, who currently lives in San Francisco, and AJ Kluth, who is now based in LA. The two began talking about music in the context of jigsaw puzzles, as Ploeg explains: “I talked about how you could have a 5000 piece puzzle, but one of those pieces could just be green,” he adds. “It could represent grass. And while it might feel like nothing much on it’s own, in the context of the other 4999 pieces, it could serve a critical purpose. So, I asked him to play ‘puzzle pieces’, and he did.” The two of them recorded with a variety of instruments, ranging from woodwinds and guitars to Kluth’s clicking teeth.

From there, Ploeg arranged the pieces into “rough sketches of songs” that they gave to Chicago vocalist Matt Ammerman, who according to Ploeg “has been singing in public at inappropriate times from an early age”, and performs with a variety of Chicago bands. Throw in some reflection on Ploeg and Ammerman’s conservative Christian upbringings and the Bible, and you have I Think I May Have Had a Religious Experience. I won’t compare it to anything out there today – just listen to it and enjoy: