Hirta is the solo project of Scottish – American multi instrumentalist Alistair Paxton, well known for his guitar work with Shilpa Ray and for touring and working in recording studios with multiple other artists. His debut album is called Soft Peaks. Soft Peaks finds solace in the natural world and comforts through an intriguing map of familiar trailheads and newly chartered terrain. It casts a windswept and lonely spell, yet retains an air of optimism across its ten warm and desolate tracks. This album was self produced and recorded in 2025 in sessions split between the Hudson Valley town of Nyack, NY and rural Bovina in the Western Catskill mountains culminating in both vinyl and digital releases under Paxton’s own imprint, Half Painted Door. Soft Peaks reveals layers of intricate acoustic fingerstyle guitar and plaintive drums under sparse and tasteful contemporary textures. A subtle and evocative blend of traditional folk voicings and indie rock charm which conjures fleeting nostalgia and offers some hopeful light in a dark time. Through songwriting that crafts propulsive repetition and embraces the power of restraint and economy, Paxton’s vocal harmonies remain unadorned and carry a poetic honesty while delivering elegiacal verses both timeless and universal.