Ada Johanna’s "Better" hits like the second after you decide not to send that long paragraph. The phone is still sitting face down, the emotion is still loud, but something has shifted, and the shift has a beat. Her debut single turns blocked-number energy into bright alternative electronic pop with breakbeat drums, airy synths, and a huge final lift. The Norwegian artist uses her debut single...

GISKE’s "The Sound of Birdsong" doesn’t so much begin as it seeps into the room, like the pale, perpetual twilight of a Norwegian summer night where sleep feels like a theoretical concept. This is a song for the space between the last page of a book and turning off the light; a four-minute float in that strange, conscious stillness when the world is quiet...