Deep house keeps finding ways to feel personal without getting loud about it. Est8 and BLVRD’s new collaboration, Love Memo featuring Idun Nicoline, sits right in that lane: minimal, emotive, and built to linger rather than shout. It landed exclusively on Beatport on 14 August 2026 and hit all major platforms on 28 August via Guess Records.
The track lives somewhere between deep house and melodic house. Nothing here is overcooked. The groove is tight and unhurried, the synth work stays subtle, and the whole arrangement leaves space for the vocal to do the heavy lifting. That is the point. Est8 and BLVRD describe it as minimal but effective, and that is exactly how it plays. You get depth without clutter, atmosphere without fog.
Est8 is Daniel Jones, the London-based writer and producer best known for the Est8 Piano Mix of These Tears with Spiritchaser. That record became a multi-platinum South African number one, spent weeks at the top, and has had a long afterlife through radio, samples, and streaming. Jones also works as Empire St8 and co-owns Kinetic Music Group, with publishing through Bucks Music Group. His fingerprints on Love Memo are the keys, the writing, and that sense of melody that already knows where it wants to sit.
BLVRD is Chris Tomsett, previously known as K-Bana, a UK producer with more than two decades in the scene and releases on Duffnote, Guess Records, Hed Kandi, and Nightdrive. His earlier work includes a well-known remix of D.U.S.K’s Picture Me Falling. As BLVRD he leans into textured, understated soundscapes, drawing on house, garage, and more leftfield electronic listening. Together with Jones, he programmed, arranged, and mixed the record across West Hampstead Studios in Camden and BLVRD Studios in West Sussex.
The centrepiece is Idun Nicoline. The Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer studied Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music and has already racked up tens of millions of streams across house and electronic releases with labels including Ultra and others. Her voice on Love Memo is clear and delicate, sitting naturally in the mix instead of fighting it. Lyrics are by Daniel Jones; the vocal performance is hers. Additional synth comes from Tomsett, and Luke Holden handled the master in West Sussex.
This is not their first time working as a pair. Est8 and BLVRD already linked on Dreaming with Rory Hope earlier in 2026. Love Memo feels like a continuation of that partnership: refined, purposeful, and more intimate than peak-time. Deep house in 2026 still rewards records that can live in a club set and on headphones. This one is built for both. The structure stays functional without falling into cliché, and the vocal gives it a contemporary centre that DJs can actually use.
Guess Records is a natural home. Est8 already has history there through These Tears and related projects, and the label’s deep and melodic catalogue suits a cut that would rather glow than explode. If you are following the current wave of vocal-led deep house that still respects groove and space, this is in that conversation.
What do you think of Love Memo? Does the vocal sit right for you, or are you more here for the understated production? Drop it in the comments.
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