From Aarhus, DenmarkRecommended if you like Caroline Polachek, Zara Larsson, GrimesUp next Debut project coming later this yearYou could hardly make a better professional songwriting debut than co-writing nine 10ths of a moment-defining album – namely Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun – then getting a Grammy nod for it. It’s an enviable springboard for the relaunch of Helena Gao’s solo career. Over the past few years, the Chinese-Danish artist has released a handful of singles and EPs – standout God’s Favourite split the difference between NewJeans and R&B, and comes with an excellent Sims-referencing video – but her new music feels like a real flourishing, sidelining her older sweetness for a freakier braid of heavy bass, stuttering trance and a pitch-bending falsetto to rival that of Caroline Polachek, singing in English and Mandarin.You can trace her evolution in tracks released just a few years apart. When Gao put out Pretty Please in 2023, the glittering, new-agey rhapsody was laced with innuendo: “I’m a bit of a prude,” she said, conscious of her parents hearing her lyrics. But the first taste of her new era, Lao Shi 老师, translates to “teacher”; its iridescent synths blossoming like flowers as she contemplates “new positions” and “optimising pleasure”. It’s more innocent than it sounds, she’s said, written “during a period of personal awakening” that mirrors her “reconnecting with my Chinese identity”.Born in Aarhus to a Chinese mother and Danish father, Gao moved to Copenhagen, learned classical jazz and studied – where else – at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory that produces all Denmark’s boundary-breaking pop stars, before moving to split her time between London and Shanghai, and immersing herself in both cities’ club scenes. It all reverberates through a formally wild forthcoming project that should truly make Gao’s name. Laura SnapesThis week’s best new tracksA font of fortifying wisdom … Saul Williams. Photograph: Sam LeeSaul Williams – Conspiracy (ft Moor Mother and Gonjasufi)