Ulrika Spacek

Ulrika Spacek are a London band formed in 2014, initially assembled by Rhys Edwards and Rhys Williams after time spent in Berlin. Edwards had already been playing with future bandmates Joseph Stone and Ben White since 2002, first in a Reading group called the Enigma Project and later as Tripwires, before the move to London led to something different.

Their music is built around interlocking guitars, repetition and layered reverb, drawing on krautrock's steady pulse, American indie rock and shoegaze textures. Songs unfold gradually, with vocals sitting low in the mix and instrumental passages given room to build, a patience that rewards repeat listens over immediate hooks.

Early albums were recorded largely in a shared house the band nicknamed KEN, in Homerton, east London, which gave the material a loose, live-in-a-room quality. The band played its first London show in May 2015 and around the same time started Oysterland, a self-curated night pairing early gigs with art exhibitions.

The debut album, The Album Paranoia, came out in February 2016, followed the next year by Modern English Decoration, which the band has described as a companion record to the first. Ulrika Spacek then went quiet before returning to live shows in November 2022 with a reshaped lineup.

Members have held day jobs in fields such as physics, graphic design and music production alongside the band. Its most recent album, EXPO, leans further into electronic production than earlier records, and is released through the label Full Time Hobby.