The Mostar Diving Club

The Mostar Diving Club

The Mostar Diving Club is a British experimental band formed in 2008 by Damian Katkhuda, formerly of Obi. The group works with a multi-instrumental approach and its sound draws on folk, indie, acoustic and singer-songwriter styles alongside more experimental arrangements.

History and name

The band takes its name from Mostar, a town in Bosnia linked to Katkhuda’s father’s family. The name refers to the local tradition in which young men dive from an old bridge into the river below as a rite of passage into adulthood.

Debut album

The group’s first release is Don Your Suit of Lights. Its songs are written in a woodland farmhouse in the south of France, and the album reflects that isolated setting. It is produced by Will Worsley, who also works on much of Obi’s earlier material.

The album ranges from full arrangements such as “Vagabonds and Clowns” to a simpler guitar-and-vocal recording, “There Goes My Mind (Plastic Girls),” which is recorded in a garden. It also uses a wide range of instruments, including recorder orchestras, violins with trumpet attachments, bowed saws, accordions, harmoniums, glockenspiels, banjos, autoharps and ukuleles.

Related work and critical response

Will Worsley is also associated with Obi’s single “Somewhere Nicer,” which receives radio play on Radio 2 and Virgin and leads to European tours and festival performances. The Mostar Diving Club’s later album Triumph of Hope follows Don Your Suit of Lights. Other songs and releases by Katkhuda are also noted in reviews, including “The Magic Land of Radio” and Diceman Lopez. Critical descriptions in the press characterise the music as melodic, story-led folk pop, with praise for its charm, diversity and dreamlike quality.