'The French-born, UK-based soprano and composer Héloïse Werner is a performer of striking ingenuity. She uses every natural tool at her disposal – not just vocal cords but face and hands – to make sounds, from percussive to unearthly to yelps and yowls to the purely lyrical. On her EP Revelries, with regular collaborators Kit Downes (organ) and Colin Alexander (cello), an unusual mix of timbres collide and overlap with strange radiance. You have to hear these extraordinary talents to understand how they spin unexpected noise into affecting music.'

'For all its sunken atmosphere and knotty texture, there is something carnivalesque about Revelries, the debut album from Miré: an upturning of expectations, a pleasure in sound-making for its own sake. The group, consisting of vocalist Héloise Werner (of The Hermex Experiment), plus organist Kit Downes (a regular collaborator with John Edwards, Lucy Railton and others) and cellist Colin Alexander (Phaedra Ensemble), have been playing together for some years, but this is their first recorded release. It features one composition apiece by the three members, plus interpretations of text scores by Jasmin Kent Rodgman and Jonathan Cole. Tracks sound wild and apoplectic one minute, spectral and atmospheric the next. But what’s surprising, given the diversity of compositional voices, is how cohesive the record comes across. This is a group with their own distinct sound. Revelries is restless and urgent, fractured and playful. If you’re familiar with Erner, Alexander and Downes’ other projects, you’ll recognise their individual voices straightaway, but you’ll also recognise something else. One thing’s for sure: this isn’t your average chamber ensemble.'

The Best Albums and Tracks of February 2026