Iga Memento has been the name chosen by Oriol Solé (Igualada, 1973) to present a project that, within the parameters of the singer-songwriter, pop and low-fi music traditions, settles in the furthest perimeters of these coordinates. The sound seems happy, but through its sudden sparks of electricity, it denotes a dark legacy to the tenets of acoustic low-fi music.

When it comes to self-produced material, Oriol is a prolific musician. These recordings show a palette of influences that range from the Beatles and Neil Young, to Mark Kozelek, Owen, Elliott Smith, Hush Arbors… but despite these influences his voice remains his own; his songs draw him closer to himself where you can find complete honesty. The melody is used not as a final destination but as the means to express emotions and ideas: Iga Memento’s music sets out on a journey to the inner self and there’s no return. His only baggage is confidence: songs in first person singular, reflections of spaces and adjacent beings as a starting point, bafflement before the inner world and, specially, the difficulty at finding a balance between the outer and the inner world.

When looking at the aesthetic relations in Iga Memento’s music, we see a complex structure that veers off in several directions, all at once: Hush Arbors, Richard Youngs, Alastair Galbreith, Alexander Tucker, James Blackshaw, Charalambides, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Deaf Center, Autistic Daughters, Svarte Greiner.

The frailty and delicate range of textures that one finds in his songs make Iga Memento’s work a totem of the most painful beauty.