Memorial

Memorial are Jack Watts and Oliver Spalding, an alt-folk duo from Brighton known for their delicate, harmony-rich sound and evocative storytelling. In the tradition of Sufjan Stevens , Adrianne Lenker & Elliott Smith , they write songs that sit with contradiction rather than resolve it, finding meaning through honesty. After their second record Redsetter, both arrived separately at a point of exhaustion. They made a shared decision: leave their label and management, strip everything back, and find out whether making music was still something they wanted to do on their own terms. That question led them to the Sounds From a Safe Harbour residency in Cork, where they met Ólafur Arnalds. His label OPIA Community became their new home, and before long they were in his Reykjavík studio, recording live in the same room as heavy snow fell outside. They returned to finish the record at Clockwork Owl Studios in Brighton with producer Tim Bidwell. Jera, their new album, is so delicate that at any moment it feels close to breaking, strengthened by its lens on vulnerability and its ability to sit with difficulty rather than resolving it, and finds in that something that still feels true. Out 7th August 2026 on OPIA Community.