Two thirds of people in Britain will suffer a mental health issue in their life and yet often the illness is hidden, the sufferer feels alone and the rest of the population can seem either dismissive, or wilfully ignorant. Birmingham symphonic prog collective IO Earth’s new album Solitude – a musical exploration of mental health and ability – was first born out of an encounter with an Alzheimer’s patient that was hard to ignore.
“We did a video for a song called Insomnia [from 2015 album New World],” explains Dave Cureton, the band’s guitarist and, alongside pianist Adam Gough, its co-founder. “The video is about a daughter being killed, basically, but we needed a house where it could be set. Long story short, this guy lends us this old house to film in, he was an elderly chap, and his wife had some kind of health issue that involved [advanced] Alzheimer’s. When we were filming she was literally just sat in a chair, staring into space. I don’t even think she knew we were there. These nurses came in to care for her and make sure she was alright, get her ready for bed in the evening. And it kind of hit home, really: this woman was just locked in herself. It didn’t matter that there were 10 people walking around her house with cameras and playback music. That really hit us.”
