CHARLOTTE WESSELS reveals lead single for “Mute Swan Empire”

Following the recent announcement that her new album, Mute Swan Empire, will be released on February 5, 2027, Dutch artist Charotte Wessels is sharing the album’s first track today: “Incubus.” Together with her band The Obsession, Charlotte has created a character-driven concept album in which each of the 15 tracks embodies a specific human pattern of thought and behavior that emerges at the end of the Anthropocene epoch. Wessels explores how differently people react to climate collapse, social injustice, and the collapse of familiar visions of the future. The result is a multifaceted portrait of humanity at the moment of collapse. All of this is woven into a sonic multiverse that defies any genre categorization.

Curtain up for “Incubus,” a journey through choir-driven soundscapes and intense instrumentation, both inspired by Johann Heinrich Füssli’s (also known as Henry Fuseli) painting “The Nightmare.” The song gives a voice to the sleepless—the archetype known as The Insomniac: it’s about lying awake at night and realizing that perseverance can also be a form of power.

A music video accompanies the new single, offering a first glimpse into the world of Mute Swan Empire and here it is: https://youtu.be/4xyoh6PlXRY?si=YYQRNX4wIxkriHhd

Tracklist: