Memorials

MEMORIALS pairs Verity Susman, formerly of Electrelane, with Matthew Simms, who previously performed with Wire and It Hugs Back. Their music fuses the depth and surprising textures found in standout film scores with psychedelic elements. Following two well-received soundtrack projects in the early 2020s, the pair shifted toward more song-oriented material, which yielded their assured and demanding first full-length release, Memorial Waterslides, issued in 2024.

Susman contributed centrally to Electrelane’s intricate, forceful post-rock aesthetic. After the group ended, she completed a master’s degree in music, launched solo work, and took on scoring assignments. Simms, meanwhile, moved through several indie-rock ensembles before entering the ranks of the post-punk outfit Wire. The two musicians had intersected occasionally, including appearances together in the London Improvisers Orchestra, yet only began sustained collaboration once the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. They received commissions for the documentary scores Women Against the Bomb and Tramps!. Drawing on their common indie-rock roots, the duo layered in murky psychedelic tones, vintage electronics, free jazz, haunted folk, and expansive cinematic dimensions. Invited to perform live, they successfully adapted the material to the stage with assistance from a reel-to-reel tape machine and formally established themselves as a band.

Adopting the name MEMORIALS, they attracted the interest of Stereolab, whose Duophonic imprint issued the cassette single “There Are Other Worlds” in December 2022. The band subsequently invited MEMORIALS to share a handful of dates in late 2023. The next year, the Centre Pompidou in Paris commissioned the duo to create music responding to a work in its collection; they chose Louise Bourgeois’ 1992 piece Precious Liquids. Their Centre Pompidou EP appeared in April 2024, shortly before the first tracks from the debut album surfaced. Captured in a garden-shed studio amid three concurrent soundtrack commitments, Memorial Waterslides retained the sonic breadth displayed on the earlier scores while emphasizing tighter song structures and foregrounding the pair’s vocals. Heavenly Recordings released the album in October, confirming MEMORIALS as a distinctive voice within the neo-psych and film-music sphere.