We have been following heka’s music since her tentative beginnings in 2021, and over the past five years, the young artist has grown and increasingly refined her emotive, elegant musical style. heka is the project of Florence-born, London-based multidisciplinary artist, songwriter and producer Francesca Brierley. Working across music, visual art, creative computing and live performance, she makes intimate, shape-shifting songs somewhere between folk, ambient, electronic music and 70s-infused rock. Her work is rooted in collage, combining acoustic and electronic textures, field recordings, loops, fragments of speech and found sounds with songwriting that moves between the personal and the abstract. In 2020, heka released the self-produced digital track redwoods (a few interesting facts about sequoias), followed in 2021 by the EP (a). In late 2021, she released no one through Fire Talk’s Open Tab imprint, followed in 2022 by High Tide, a collaboration with GG Skips released through Slow Dance Recordings. That year she made her first European festival appearance at Sonic City in Belgium, selected by Black Country, New Road. In 2023, heka signed with Practise Music and released swan songs, a six-track EP, followed, in 2024, by In Your Garden // Swallow, a limited 7-inch collaboration with Saint Jude through Slow Dance Recordings, creating the artwork herself. In 2025, Brierley formed Dorothy with Marco Pini and Jude Woodhead. Their debut EP Sea Songs was released through Angel Tapes, Fire Talk’s emerging-artists imprint. Alongside this, heka began exploring her Italian and English identities more directly through Cantavi d’amore // Each Spring and in July 2026 she released her second double single in Italian, Tutto l’amore che ho dato ti ha cercato // M’hai parlato tante volte così . Today, Francesca releases the first installment from her debut album, Pure Music.

heka (aka Francesca Brierley) is an experimental artist, songwriter and producer whose intimate songwriting merges elements of folk, ambient and lo-fi electronics into hybrid compositions. With a background in visual art and creative computing, her practice is shaped by collage, layering acoustic and electronic textures to create music that moves between the personal and the abstract, the organic and the digital. Raised in the Italian countryside before moving to London, heka’s songwriting is rooted in the relationship between language, memory and belonging. Moving between English and Italian, she explores the ways voice carries personal history, place and emotion. She has shared stages with artists including John Maus, Sam Burton, bar italia, Black Country, New Road, Belle and Sebastian and The New Eves, and has recorded, toured and collaborated across projects including Drug Store Romeos, Gently Tender, Tapir!, Skydaddy, Naima Bock and Dana Gavanski. In 2025 she formed Dorothy with long-time collaborators Marco Pini (GG Skips, RIP Magic, Sorry) and Jude Woodhead (Saint Jude). Their debut EP Sea Songs was released via Angel Tapes, an imprint of New York label Fire Talk, and the project will make its live debut at Green Man Festival 2026. Alongside completing her debut solo album, set for release in 2026, heka’s latest release is the Italian double single Tutto l’amore che ho dato ti ha cercato, which continues her exploration of songwriting across languages.

Visiting Hour is a Richmond, Virginia-based quintet crafting expansive, emotionally resonant songs that blur the boundaries between slowcore, post-rock, and indie rock, echoing the spirit of 4AD and Creation Records. Formed by members of the punk bands Arrogants, Black Button, and Cicada, the group draws from the meditative restraint of Low, the poetic intensity of Lungfish, and the droning atmosphere of bands like Slint and The Velvet Underground to create music that is both intimate and immersive. Their self-titled debut, due out at the end of August via Dig! Records, explores themes of longing, connection, and the search for meaning through patient songcraft, layered textures, and deeply reflective lyricism. Built on years of shared musicianship, Visiting Hour’s sound balances quiet beauty with emotional weight, offering moments of solace and contemplation amid an increasingly restless world. Today, Triste© is proud to host the exclusive premiere of the album’s second single, Labrador Sea, following the standout Long Spring, alongside its stunning new video, by slow cinema filmmaker Connor Barrett, offering another glimpse into the rich and evocative world of Visiting Hour ahead of the album’s release.

There’s always been something elusive about Bobby Wratten’s work. Since his days with The Field Mice and Sarah Records, he has consistently avoided overexposure, allowing fragments of emotion, memory and atmosphere to emerge only through his music. With LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR, that instinct for disappearance and suggestion has deepened even further, and Every Flame a Sunset stands among the project’s most emotionally resonant pieces. Originally featured on the extraordinary Colours Yet To Be Named, the song now returns in a new reworked and remixed version: a meditation on absence, survival, grief and the invisible traces left behind by a lost generation. Yet far from surrendering completely to fate, Every Flame a Sunset is marked by a fierce melancholy, by an invincible and quiet resilience. As with the finest moments on Colours Yet To Be Named, the song seems to exist in an unstable emotional space, suspended between melody and abandon. Wratten and producer Ian Catt shape sound like memory itself: blurred at the edges, fragile, impossible to fully hold onto. What remains is not an outcry, a lament, but a slow-burning bulwark of resistance. Accompanying the song is Ghost Pavilion Dub, a minimal and deeply atmospheric track recorded during the album sessions. Its nocturnal, reflective feel veers into more abstract territory, showcasing, once again, Bobby Wratten’s uncanny ability to conjure beauty through the most measured and delicate means. TRISTE© is honoured to present this exclusive premiere.