When I reviewed VARSOVIE‘s 2023 album “Pression à Froid”, what struck me most was the band’s ability to transform melancholy into something strangely beautiful. The Grenoble duo have always occupied a unique corner of the post-punk landscape, creating songs that feel both intimate and cinematic, filled with mystery, poetry and room for interpretation.
Now Arnault Destal and Grégory Cathérina return with “Treize Collines”, the first single from their upcoming sixth album “Notes Pour Plus Tard”, due for release in October 2026 via Icy Cold Records.
As with much of VARSOVIE‘s work, the song refuses to reveal all of its secrets at once.
“Treize Collines” translates as “Thirteen Hills” for Paris. The lyrics guide the listener through a labyrinth of memories and fleeting images: a darkened tower, celebrations turning to dust, voices acting as the last witnesses of lives once lived. Throughout the song, the French capital emerges as a landscape shaped by memory and history.
According to the band, the song alludes to the attacks of 13 November 2015. For readers unfamiliar with the date, Paris was struck that night by a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that claimed 130 lives. Among the locations targeted was the Bataclan concert hall, a place forever connected to one of the darkest nights in modern live music history.
Yet VARSOVIE never approach these events directly. There are no descriptions of violence, no political slogans and no attempt to retell what happened. Instead, the duo focus on what remains years later. The memories. The scars. The invisible fault lines left behind when a city experiences collective trauma.
That restraint is precisely what makes the song so compelling.
Lines such as “A story that lingers in the mind” and the recurring refrain about every hill carrying a fault suggest a Paris where every street and every landmark bears traces of the past. More than a song about a tragedy, “Treize Collines” feels like a meditation on how places remember.
The track was recorded at Drudenhaus Studio in Brittany during August 2025 and offers the first glimpse of “Notes Pour Plus Tard”, with artwork created by Greek artist Sotiris Lamprou.
If “Pression à Froid” demonstrated VARSOVIE‘s talent for combining post-punk intensity with poetic depth, “Treize Collines” suggests the duo have lost none of their ability to create music that lingers long after the final note has faded. And I cannot wait for “Notes Pour Plus Tard” in October.
Also Check Out:
Varsovie – New Album “Pression à Froid”
Joy Division’s “Leaders Of Men” Gets A Stunning Makeover By Varsovie
Varsovie – L’Offensive
