Charlotte Dos Santos – Harvest Time
Norwegian-Bazilian singer Charlotte Dos Santos is going to release her new 5-track EP “Harvest Time” on March 13th. After her 2017 album “Cleo”, Charlotte, who has attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music for a Performance and Arranging Major, sounds a lot more self-contained and unique on her new songs. She is currently touring with her new material and makes a stop in Berlin on Sunday, March 8th at Baketown.
The title track of her new EP shows her arranging skills especially in her writing the background vocal arrangements which was already the topic on her neo-soul cuts like “Take It Slow” or “Move On” from her last album. The track unfolds as a mesmerizing tune with an amazingly catchy hook, with one foot still firmly on neo-soul pattern, and the other exploring indie-alternative terrain. “As an arranger, composer, writer, producer, singer, it’s all me. And it feels great to have that autonomy,” she is quoted in the press release for her new music and indeed, there is a lot more piano for example and less samples, like on the somber “Padre”, where her attractive vibrato comes to the fore in an effective way. It’s an ethereal cut, with harp and mystical voice-overs.
Charlotte drifts away from her neo-soul stance towards a more pop-oriented approach on “Helio”, with dramatic drum work and an almost ethno method getting her story about loneliness and self-love across. “Musically, this is the music where I allowed myself to do whatever I wanted,” and so there is a beautiful quasi-instrumental interlude called “The Snow Dance” which somehow reminds me of the song “Onward” by prog-rock band Yes (1978).
And even though we are treated to only 18 minutes of her artistry, the five songs are immensely tasty and adamantly versatile, enhanced by the use of bassoon, layered vocals and drum synths on the final cut “Josef”. So it’s less neo-soul, less Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Jill Scott and the like, and more Charlotte Dos Santos this time around.
3/05 Rotterdam – Bird
3/06 Brussels – Ancienne Belgique
3/07 Paris – La Boule Noire
3/08 Berlin – Baketown
3/10 London – Village Underground
3/12 Madrid – Conde Duque
3/19 San Francisco – Slim’s
3/21 Los Angeles – Zebulon
3/22 Santa Ana – La Santa
3/25 Atlanta – 529
3/28 Brooklyn – Public Records
