New York, NY (Top40 Charts) "You start with some kind of urgency that is indistinct, and it takes a lifetime to uncover what the thrust of your activity was about. You sing from a kind of thorn in your side, which may just be the human heart aching in its particular predicament. And all art is an effort to address that aching." - Leonard Cohen
Upon first listening to Amsterdam singer songwriter, VanWyck, Leonard Cohen's quote immediately comes to mind. A hauntingly atmospheric and melodious whisper in her ear, it emerges in the form of smoky soulful vocals aching with lyrical precision of stories untold.
The VanWyck moniker is in itself an untold story of front woman, Christine Oele's grandmother. An homage to her grandmother's maiden name, the project makes the invisible, visible. It's this thread that weaves throughout, from the curiosity of the mystical songwriting process to calling into question the erasure of women's history, their stories, and their names.
VanWyck says, "Both my grandmothers were strong women (a nurse and a teacher) who came from very humble backgrounds and had to work hard and take care of children. Being creative was a luxury that was often not allowed to them. Being in the foreground was also not something they were allowed to aspire to. One of my grandmothers was very inspirational in making me reach higher and to put all my talents to work. I keep her picture as a young girl on my desktop to remind me of the chances she never had and the way she pushed me to reach higher."
Her push to reach higher formed into an eclectic musical background that has included training as a classical pianist, becoming a keyboard player and one of the first female rappers in the Netherlands in a jazz dance band, and being half of a trip hop duo. VanWyck launched a year-long project called One Song A Week after releasing her debut solo EP Tanned Legs, with the lead single "The Daughter" lauding critical acclaim from KCRW's Chris Douridas in 2016. Songs floated in her head, snippets of ideas that needed fruition, and the way she felt she could give them a voice was through the song a week quest. Some of the songs she released were studio recordings with a full band, some came from live shows, some were shot as videos, and others were sung in kitchens. Some spoke of mystical longings, and others of earthy intimacies.
The result of that year is An Average Woman, Van Wyck's first solo album calls on the voices of the unsung heroes: the nurse, the teacher, the mother. Everyday women whose mundane tasks emanate into extraordinary outcomes. She's accompanied by the award-winning bass player and arranger Reyer Zwart, and singer Marjolein van der Klauw, whose silvery voice is the perfect counterbalance to VanWyck's own darker tones.
An Average Woman is about women who are visible and hidden, sacrificing and selfish, ordinary and magical, obligated and free. It's about the mysteries lurking in the everyday. It's about creating your own universe and your own sense of belonging - and stumbling along the way. In this debut album, VanWyck is An Average Woman who's anything but.
