Hermetic Delight: There are songs that stand tall and others made to fall. This band, born between Strasbourg and Ankara, moves through these shifts with no set instructions. From the very start, their sound has drifted somewhere between Sub Pop’s jagged edges and 4AD’s shimmering mirages. Early on, they were overflowing, caught between shoegaze and noise (Heartbeat, 2012; To The Grave To The Rave, 2013). Vow (2016) tightened the lines with a rawer live record. In 2020, F.A. Cult, produced by Charles Rowell (Crocodiles), marked a turning point: the pop sensibility stepped forward, the air felt wider, yet the tension never left.

Today, you can hear their knack for holding a motif to obsession while everything else shifts around it. Zeynep Kaya’s voice wraps and carries, stretching or pulling tight as each song unfolds. Delphine Padilla’s drumming brings a motorik drive where every strike feels choreographed. Atef Aouadhi makes guitars and bass converse—sometimes sharp, sometimes clear—opening space and guiding each track. Synths flare or withdraw, unsettling or lighting up the melodies.

Born in Yorkshire and now based in South-East London, Zach Thompson draws from the bardic and balladeer traditions of the British and Irish isles, filtering influences as varied as Dada poetry, Biblical myth, nursery rhymes, newspaper columns and everyday idioms into a singular songwriting voice. Following years of local residencies and live performances, Thompson released his debut EP ‘Algebra Parable’ last year, recorded live with a nine-piece band at Fish Factory Studios in London. Its follow-up, ‘On Platt’s Eyot’, expanded his sound further, moving between surreal imagery, social commentary and sprawling orchestral arrangements, cementing his reputation as one of the most distinctive new voices in contemporary folk music.