In stock
LP
Charmaine LEE
“Tulpa”
Tulpa is the most ambitious album yet from New York–based vocalist and electronics artist Charmaine Lee, following her acclaimed debut KNVF (Erratum Musical, 2021). Where earlier works explored sculptural delicacy, Tulpa arrives with immediacy and intensity, unflinching in its integration of raw human voice and processing, dissolving boundaries between organic and synthetic sound.
Inspired by the physicality and futurism of ’70s rock and the esoteric edges of tube amplification, Lee channels that energy into a densely layered and tactile listening experience—at once timelessly analog and futuristically digital.
Produced by Randall Dunn and recorded at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, NY, Tulpa embraces spatialized sound through the splitting of Lee’s signal across vintage tube amplifiers and direct input. The result is a spectrum of feedback, color, and dimensional shifts, moving fluidly from microscopic detail to expansive complexity while maintaining visceral clarity.
The title, drawn from Tibetan mysticism, refers to a being or object conjured through thought and imagination—mirroring Lee’s own practice, where sound becomes both material and illusion, embodied and ephemeral. Closing with a meditative duo featuring Ned Rothenberg on bass clarinet, Tulpa nods to Noh theatre while opening onto new horizons of Lee’s artistic evolution.
As her first solo release on Kou Records, the New York–based label she founded in 2025, Tulpa also inaugurates a curatorial vision dedicated to artists who are uncompromising in craft and curiosity.
32,00€
In stock
LP
Charmaine LEE
“KNVF”
Following the release of her 2018 solo tape, Ggggg (Anticausal Systems), vocalist Charmaine Lee returns with her debut LP, KNVF, for Erratum Musical (Paris, France). In just two years, the album marks a considerable evolution from the austere concentration of Ggggg towards expansive sonic worlds. Inspired by the arcs of popular music, Charmaine freely and fearlessly navigates a wide range of aesthetics, digging beneath each surface to disclose a highly personal sense of musicality. Microphones of varying fidelities, contact mics placed on the throat, and amplified hair combs are used to simulate polyphony and a dialogue between the inner and outer body. With Charmaine’s unique vocal articulations atop a bed of feedback and extreme frequencies, form follows expression in an ever-evolving context built on the traditions of noise, vocal, and improvised music. KNVF is a powerful statement in modern vocal music and a thrilling new development in Charmaine‘s artistry that will reward those who listen for the journey.
Charmaine Lee (b. 1991) is a New York-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Charmaine uses amplification, feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice. She has performed with leading improvisers Nate Wooley, id m theft able, C. Spencer Yeh, and Ikue Mori, and maintains ongoing collaborations with Conrad Tao, Victoria Shen, Zach Rowden, and Eric Wubbels. Charmaine has performed at ISSUE Project Room, the Kitchen, Roulette, The Poetry Project, and MoMA PS1, and participated in festivals including Resonant Bodies, Huddersfield Contemporary, and Ende Tymes. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions including The Moon Represents My Heart: Music, Memory and Belonging at the Museum of Chinese in America (2019). As a composer, Charmaine has been commissioned by the Wet Ink Ensemble (2018) and Spektral Quartet (2018). In 2019, she was an Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room and is currently a 2021 Van Lier Fellow at Roulette. Charmaine is a member of the Editorial Board of Sound American.
23,00€