FAUZIA doesn’t so much return as she re-enters the room quietly, hoping no one notices, while simultaneously rearranging the furniture. Her first solo release in four years lands as Local Action’s final mic drop of 2025, and it feels less like a comeback than a gentle reminder: she never actually left, she was just busy becoming even more herself.

A pillar of the UK underground, FAUZIA has spent the last decade zig-zagging between worlds with the ease of someone who never bought into lanes in the first place. From her long-running NTS radio show to her early production breakthroughs via Discwoman, she’s consistently blurred the lines between DJ intuition and songwriter sensitivity. Those pandemic-era downtempo pop gems — flashes of time and are you hoping for a miracle? — still sound like late-night thoughts set to half-lit melodies, the kind that sneak up on you when you least expect them.

Since then, FAUZIA’s quietly levelled up. Ambitious live performances at Southbank Centre and Kings Place revealed her composer brain in full bloom, weaving harp, strings and electronics into something closer to a moving installation than a “set”. Alongside that, she’s been busy lending her touch to projects by Duval Timothy, Tirzah, Elias Rønnenfelt, Special Request and Kelela — basically a roll call of artists who value feel over flash. And yet, she keeps one sneaker firmly planted in the club, moving seamlessly from supporting Patti Smith at St. Paul’s Cathedral (casual) to DJing with dBridge at Glasgow’s Flying Duck. Range? Immense. Ego? Nowhere to be found.

This new double-single feels like a mirror held at slightly different angles. Two tracks, two moods, same voice — intimate without being confessional, restrained but emotionally loaded. There’s a sense of an artist surveying all her musical selves and letting them coexist, rather than forcing them into a tidy narrative. It’s subtle music that rewards patience, like a city revealing itself only after you stop trying to map it.

The accompanying video, co-directed with Chanthila Phaophanit, mirrors that ethos beautifully. Shot as a kind of quiet drift through London, it captures FAUZIA in motion but never on display — present, observant, almost camouflaged. The collaboration itself feels organic, born from conversation and trust rather than rigid concept. It’s less “music video” and more a candid document of a day, a mood, a person who prefers the margins to the spotlight.

If this double-single tells us anything, it’s that FAUZIA’s power lies in her refusal to shout. She doesn’t chase attention — she lets it find her, eventually, and on her own terms.

“The Way” out now on Local Action.

FAUZIA – The Way

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FAUZIA – The Way