Genre/Influences: Electro-Wave, Electro-Pop, Dark-Wave.

Format: Digital, Vinyl.

Background/Info: More or less four years after the excellent debut-album “Cravings” Swedish Memoria strikes back with new work. The album got preceded by multiple singles.  Tess de la Cour (wife of Henric de la Cour) again collaborated with Rikard Lindh (Yvonne).

Content: Just as for “Cravings” there still is an explicit 80s touch running feature although this work sounds maybe more ‘personal’. It takes off with a Cinematic-like opener and next moves into uplifting rhythms and heavenly, female, voices. We next discover Electro-Pop/Wave passages -even reminding early Apoptygma Berzerk, going over into Ethereal/Pop-Wave to finish with a more guitar driven Post-Punk part where vocals are becoming more enraged.

+ + + : Somewhere in between Mother destruction, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Apoptygma Berzerk, Memoria first of all is an artist with an eclectic but very own sound and approach. The songs are moving from dreamy passages into furious parts, from cool Electro-Pop structures into enraged Post-Punk. Different influences are constantly crossing each other. I highly recommend the uplifting “Along The Sea” and the very Electro-like “Girl” but the true and single earworm is the short, and powerful, “Anymore”. It’s the shortest cut from the album featuring only a few repetitive vocal lines but it’s a masterpiece. I would be not surprised the song was originally conceived as a B-side or album-filler (because of the pretty short format of 2 minutes 37) but it’s hit I’ve been listening to in a loop.

– – – : Songs are sometimes a bit short and especially the best cut from the work. But on the other side I prefer a short but brilliant cut to an endless tracklist without substance.

Conclusion: After a great debut-album Memoria only confirms to be a new, great, artist with a very eclectic approach in sound.

Best songs: “Anymore”, “Girl”, “Along The Sea”, “Spiders”, “From The Bones Of The Dead”, “Canary”.

Rate: 8½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/memoriasthlm

Label: www.novoton.se / www.facebook.com/Novoton Read the news on ‘From The Bones’.

About Memoria

Memoria is a Swedish dark-wave and electro-pop project fronted by Tess de la Cour, wife of Henric de la Cour. The project released its debut album, “Cravings”, roughly four years before the follow-up. For the new album, Tess de la Cour again worked with Rikard Lindh of Yvonne. Side-Line announced the album on February 20, 2023 under the title “From The Bones”, following the single “From The Bones Of The Dead” announced on January 16, 2023. Memoria later collaborated with Majestoluxe on the single “Closer”, released May 9, 2025.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(Photo: Jannicke Olofsson) A few years ago Memoria’s debut album “Cravings” (Novoton) got a really nice 8,5/10 score from Side-Line.

Our reviewer then said: “The work is filled with 80s nostalgia with a very personal touch on top. I’m not saying that you can easily recognize the magic touch of Henric de la Cour, but you can feel his presence. The album is a dark, but subtle artistic testimony of Tess’ sonic ideas mixed with the beauty and magic of her vocals. She has a great timbre of voice, which is perfectly matching with the sound. The duo with her husband on “Lights Out” is a great performance and a sublime song. I don’t see real minus points; this is a great production.”

In January 2023 the title track of the album was released as a single. And now out on March 3rd is the full album, “From The Bones”, also via the Swedish label Novoton.

Behind the darkwave/postpunk project Memoria we find Tess de la Cour (the wife of Henric de la Cour) and her producer/co-writer Rikard Lindh (of Yvonne). Henric de la Cour contributed to the lyrical content of a few songs.

The song “From The Bones of The Dead” is inspired by Gretel and Hansel and especially the Oz Perkins film from 2020 whose esthetic, photo and music floored Tess completely. The title comes from the beckoning call of the witch, luring Hansel into death. It’s a song about black magic and darkness tempting you into the depravity.

You can already check the single below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Five years after the last album, Swedish electro-veteran Henric De La Cour, unleashed the third full length of his sonic brainchild. “Gimme Daggers” has been again released on Progress Productions and it is without a shadow of doubt the most intimate and accomplished work to date. The album is a passionate electro/indie-pop driven opus inspired by the long suffering from the artist.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: The new album “Gimme Daggers” seems to get only very positive feedback. Is this your most accomplished- and favorite work to date and what do flattering critics and the enthusiasm of the fans mean for an artist?

Henric: This album was kind of difficult to do after “Mandrills” which I thought was a very strong album, up there with “Hollywood And Wolfman” by Strip Music, so it took years for me to write something that I didn´t thought was absolute rubbish, but it came out great in the end.

The critics mean quite a bit I would say. It is always nice when people like something that you have worked on for five years, you know.

Q: “Gimme Daggers” sounds as your most accomplished and still intimate release. What did you try to express and how did you transpose lyrical themes into sounds, notes, verses, choruses?

Henric: The album reflects upon my relationship with death, that death is no longer my close confidant who’s constantly looking over my shoulder as I have felt for almost all my life, but instead just somebody you were close with before, but not anymore, and that you know you will meet further down the road.

Most of the music was made together with producer Rikard Lindh and he always knows what I am looking for in sounds and the feel of the music. We have worked together for more than 25 years. I´m so old.

Q: Music often is a kind of ‘therapy’ for artists; a way to exorcize suffer and pain. Considering elements such as the front cover, the title of the album, some of the lyrics, but also your passionate way of singing “Gimme Daggers” clearly seems to be a kind of sonic exorcism. What can you tell about it?

Henric: Writing lyrics and making music has never been that kind of therapy for me you can hear others talk about. The title means that somebody is giving you the evil eye or a saying for ‘I´ll take it from here, I´ll take care of this’, like ‘give me the daggers’. It´s from Macbeth apparently. The body of music was a long time coming and it was just in the last 6 months of recording I got the feeling that everything was coming together. It´s more about coming at terms with my self-hate than an exorcism. But maybe that is some kind of exorcism after all?

Q: Let’s talk about the sound of this album. What kind of work did you’d in mind when starting the writing and did you have specific sources of inspiration and/or eventually references?

Henric: No not really. The album had a way of finding its own way, so to speak. Took a life of its own. We always try to keep it simple, not using layer after layer of sounds. That always is the initial thought anyway.  I can see that this answer is kind of pretentious, but it is what it is. And that stands for the album to.

Q: Referring to possible sources of inspiration, I got the sensation hearing an electronic version of David Bowie and Nick Cave. It’s all about ‘authenticity’ and ‘sensibility’. I know this is a subjective feeling, but in, which way do you feel related with both (and maybe other) artists?

Henric: Oh thank you. Well I´m not pretending to be something I´m not, it is not a pose for me, it´s my life with all its faults and horrors. I really love them both, especially Cave, but I could never compare myself to them in any way. They are above and will remain above. Always.

One interesting thing is that both Cave and Bowie have their roots in r´n´b, which sometimes manifests themselves in their music. I hate r´n´b.

Q: You’re a kind of ‘veteran’ who has been involved with different bands and projects. How do you see yourself as an artist today and do you have further artistic plans?

Henric: I stand firm on my own nowadays, with the huge support of Rikard of course. With that said, I don´t see it impossible that I get back with the guys from my former bands Yvonne and Strip Music. Something will for certain happen, it´s more a question of timing. I am also involved with my wife´s project called Memoria where I write the lyrics and stuff. Maybe we will do something more together like a duo sometimes, but who knows. Concerning myself I will not take another five years to put something new out there, we are already have some ideas for an EP in the near future. If I survive this album that is.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com