After the new album Mute Swan Empire was recently released for the 5th. February 2027, the Dutch artist CHARLOTTE WESSELS today shares the first song of the album: „Incubus“. Together with her band The Obsession, Charlotte has created a character-based concept album in which each of the 15 tracks embodies a certain human pattern of imagination and action that emerges at the end of the Anthropocene era. Wessels addresses how people react differently to the climate collapse, social injustice and the collapse of familiar visions of the future. This creates a multifaceted portrait of humanity at the moment of collapse. All of this is woven into a tonal multiverse that escapes any genre categorization.
Curtain up for „Incubus“, a journey through choral-driven sound atmospheres and fierce instrumentalization, both inspired by Johann Heinrich Füssli’s (also Henry Fuseli) painting „The Night Mahr“. The song gives the sleepless, the archetype The Insomniac, a voice: It’s about lying awake at night and understanding that endurance can also be a form of power.
For the new single there is a music video that offers the first insight into the world of Mute Swan Empire.
CHARLOTTE WESSELS on „Incubus“:
“’Incubus‘ is about the things that keep us awake at night, literally as if in a figurative sense. The song introduces the Insomniac, the Sleepless, one of the character archetypes inherent in Mute Swan Empire. The character is awake under the weight of the incubus and wears a mask, built from her fears, worries and the crises that unfold around her. Partly inspired by Johann Heinrich Füssli’s painting ‚Der Nachtmahr‘, this song explores the peculiar space in which our inner fears and the horror of the outside world mix. But there is also strength in this character and his endurance. The song says: ‚You can’t break what’s already broken. You can’t burn what is made of fire.‘
I am happy to finally share this part of Mute Swan Empire with the world. The album has grown into its own universe and I can’t wait to introduce the characters. The beginning is made by this sleepless soul … „
Watch the official music video for „Incubus“ here:
CHARLOTTE WESSELS on the new album Mute Swan Empire:
“I didn’t originally plan to write a concept album, but at some point I realized that all the new songs I had written were connected. Each of them seemed to embody a different reaction to the world we live in: denial, complicity, withdrawal, blind obedience, selective compassion, but also hope, attachment, and much more. I began to recognize these recurring themes and archetypes, and finally I realized that they were all part of a much larger story. I wanted to follow this common thread as far as possible and explore the concept first through the music and finally also through the artwork and the visual language.
This discovery became the basis for Mute Swan Empire. What fascinates me is how easy it is to recognize these reactions in others, and how much more difficult it can be to perceive them in ourselves. I didn’t want to create an album that just points the finger at others or provides simple answers. I wanted to explore the contradictions, the unpleasant gray areas and the possibility that we can change.
Musically, the same freedom to follow a song to where it takes us has led to an album that alternates between some of the hardest pieces we’ve ever made and moments of great vulnerability. Despite this diversity, I believe that we have never sounded so much like a unit. Everyone brings something unique to the music, and I’m really proud of what comes about when all those elements come together.”
Source: Napalm Records
Photo Credit: Martin Schmidt/Picture-Rebels.Com