CHARLOTTE JACOBS - a t l a s
The debut album from New York-based vocalist, composer, and producer Charlotte Jacobs plays out like a half-remembered Greek epic of avant-pop proportions, piecing together earthy woodwinds, old-school synths, and shifting rhythmic patterns that enhance her myth-inspired spoken word and bilingual vocals, delivered in Dutch and English.
Arranged and co-produced by Jacobs, a t l a s, her debut solo full-length—and first for the Grammy-winning label New Amsterdam Records (Arooj Aftab, Bryce Dessner, Julia Holter et al)—preserves the fluidity and vocal centricity of her 2021 EP The Shape of Wandering, once again using text as a means of grounding her musical ideas to give her storyteller’s heart a home.
Spanning both Dutch and English, the LP also incorporates spoken language for the first time, creating vocal dynamics that add depth and dimension. Jacobs played a large proportion of the instruments on a t l a s while also working with a talented cast of musicians, including harpist Rebecca El Saleh, drummer Raf Vertessen, flautist/saxophonist Charlotte Greve, and violinist Hannah Epperson, who lend the record a contemporary classical flair. Engineer and producer Zubin Hensler also helped to steer the production.
Opener “Celeste” introduces one of the LP’s underlying themes: searching for that “god-like thing in yourself”, or being your own saviour, as Jacobs notes. This strings-laced reverie, brought to life by violin player Hannah Epperson, creates a sense of fairytale mystique that extends over nine chapters. Wonderment, mysticism, and feminism take hold, from the magical incantations of “Owl” and nod to the pastoral god of the wilds in “p a n,” to the folkloric polyphony and eerie, backwards-spoken phonetics of “CYTMH,” which evokes the iconic red room scene in Twin Peaks. a t l a s gives equal weight to both the narrative and musical elements, creating its own mythology that harnesses the Belgian artist’s love of literature.
“I have always been intrigued by god-like stories,” says Jacobs, referencing the album’s titular Atlas, the Greek Titan god who bore heaven on his shoulders. Coming from a western (Catholic) background, Jacobs has long been in search of a female narrative within these tales. “Why are all these men there? Where are the women's stories?” she asks.
“CYTMH,” the second track on a t l a s, evokes the heyday of Brooklyn warehouse shows. Here, a rickety lo-fi drum machine forms the driving beat of a standout cut that highlights the contrasting properties of her compositions, which can veer from glossy hi-fi to scuzzy lo-fi at any moment.
After segueing into the floaty flute voyage of “Xylem,” a t l a s shifts gears back to jazz. This piece was informed by the biological process of photosynthesis, as Jacobs notes, blending MIDI flutes with Charlotte Greve’s live flutes to encapsulate the organic-meets-acoustic approach of the LP’s soundworld.
Looping back to language, Jacobs explains that at the core of “Owl” was a desire to use certain pop elements, like the presence of a hook, “in a different environment”. Meanwhile, “pan” is sung in her mother tongue of Dutch. Here, a sinister synthetic sequence clashes with organic layers of saxophone and harp as Jacobs tries to put her childhood experience of anxiety and panic attacks into song. “In Dutch, we don't really have a word for anxiety, there's panic, there is stress, there's nervousness … But the specific word anxiety, we don't have.”
Ultimately, the scattered, life-affirming drums from Raf Vertessen on “Mala” construct the heartbeat of a record that finds beauty in chaos and celebrates the curvy, non-linear paths we sometimes tread. a t l a s takes a leap into the unknown. “I jump, thoughts of water under my toes” she coos on “Mala,” while on “Celeste,” she is here to “wake you up and scream at the top of the mountains.” Jacobs’s ambiguous lyrics leave enough room for the listener to infer their own strength and meaning.
Biography
New York-based vocalist, composer, and producer Charlotte Jacobs makes jazz-flecked avant-pop sshaped 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.
About New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam is a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit artist’s service organization dedicated to supporting new music by composers and performers whose work transcends traditional and outdated genre distinctions. The label's artists have won numerous awards and accolades, including two Grammy Awards, nineteen Grammy nominations, and a Pulitzer Prize. New Amsterdam has also curated and presented more than 500 live concerts of groundbreaking new music. In recent years, the label embarked on a partnership with Nonesuch Records, seeing the release of approximately three albums per year to support contemporary American composers in realizing ambitious creative projects.
