Léa Sen’s name is one you might be familiar with as a featured vocalist. The French-Martiniquan artist moved to London aged 20, and it paid off: in 2021, her breathy but direct vocal on Joy Orbison’s Better was constantly on the radio, while her contributions to excellent records from Wu-Lu and Oscar Jerome were also remarkable. But on her own work, the 23-year-old’s output goes beyond that.

Sen, who grew up just outside Paris, is a multi-instrumentalist as well as vocalist – her parents gave her a guitar aged 15, and she taught herself to play via the internet (her vocal style comes from singing along to the pop, R&B and jazz she heard as a kid rather than any formal training). She wrote, produced, engineered and mixed her debut EP, last year’s You of Now, Pt 1. Its slightly off-kilter, dream-pop-leaning songs featured rippling melodies and her lithe, unpolished vocal fanned out over the top, weighing up the pros and cons of where she found herself in life.

Its follow-up, You of Now, Pt 2, considers her situation with added intensity and sonic confidence. Here, Sen wonders aloud at toxic relationships – romantic ones, but also the one she has with herself. She weaves undulating indie-folk guitar with more expansive electronics and vocals that are both piercing and ephemeral. Increasingly, Sen’s name is one to know in its own right.

• You of Now, Pt 2 is out now on Partisan