Charlotte Jacobs
New York-based vocalist, composer, and producer Charlotte Jacobs makes jazz-flecked avant-pop shaped by literature as well as movement and visual art. Raised in her parents’ gallery in the Flanders countryside, the Belgian-born artist found an affinity with contemporary dance as an adolescent, motivated by choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, before making the pivot to music and studying jazz vocals at The Royal Conservatory of Ghent.
Arranged and produced by Jacobs with the help of engineer and producer Zubin Hensler, a t l a s, her debut solo full-length—and first for New Amsterdam Records—showcases her interest in language as a tool for expression and as a means of grounding her musical ideas. Spanning both Dutch and English, the LP incorporates spoken language for the first time, creating vocal dynamics that add depth and dimension.
Jacobs' initial interest in music was sparked through the communal experience of collaboration, and she continues to channel this in various ways outside of her solo endeavors. She recently wrote the music for choreographer Stacy Matthew Spence’s new piece I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves, premiered at Danspace NYC in March 2024 and has also been working with video and multimedia artist Zeljka Baksic, choreographer Joanna Kotze, and film animator Haisi Hu. She also currently sings in Charlotte Greve's band Wood River.
2019 saw the release of Jacobs’s solo debut, the Fishtale EP, assembled again with the help of producer and engineer Zubin Hensler (Half Waif, The Westerlies, Hannah Epperson) and drawing influence from the offbeat, stripped-back stylings of artists like Tirzah, Astrid Sonne or Jenny Hval.
A handful of singles followed in its wake, with The Shape of Wandering EP arriving in 2021, marked out by the playful pop of “Other Half,” the celestial, Bob Boilen-approved “Where You Want Me To”—featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered playlist—and the head-nodding beat of “B,” included in John Schaefer’s New Sounds round-up for WNYC.
More recently, Jacobs worked with Brussels-based poet Alex Deforce on the ambient cut-up noisetronica of 2023’s “Umami”, part Kwart Voor Straks LP, which was described by Boomkat as “a beautifully tripped out session of percolating electronics x spoken word and skeletal pop.” The LP released in early 2024 on Belgium underground mainstay Stroom, the label run by Ziggy Devriendt, AKA Nosedrip, which boasts releases from international experimental favourites such as Sofie Birch and Voice Actor.
Now, a t l a s accordingly consolidates everything that has come before, showcasing Jacobs’ multi-hyphenate mastery of multiple mediums, ideas and instruments, and her compelling gift for building worlds, and words, from scratch.
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